all of the scents

a chronicle of my quest to find the most glorious of scents that meld to my skin. please note that these descriptions are meant as a guide only; the most hideous scent on me may be alchemical glory on you.

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hmmmmm...

I’m thinking about joining the International Perfume Bottle Association. It feels like a little bit of a silly idea, but the idea of going to their annual conference (which is fairly close to me this year!) and scoping out all the lovely, unique bottles is very appealing.

I ask myself “do I really need another potentially-expensive hobby related to parfumery?” (I’m a realist - there will be at least one bottle that’s available for beaucoup bucks that I will not be able to imaaaaaaagine living without. le sigh) And the answer is...maybe? We only remember one life at a time? I don’t know if the afterlife that I hope exists includes perfume? I mean, surely, it does, but just in case...?

hmmmmmmmmmmm...

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A Continental garnet, crystal and silver gilt scent bottle, possibly Austrian, with garnet encrusted chatelaine chain, last quarter of the 19th Century.

Found here.

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Czech perfume bottle, all amber, Hoffman "3 Graces" figural 6 sided stopper intaglio cut with 3 figures, a dancing woman with a scarf, a flute player and an angel with a triangle. The original matching amber dauber is intact. The cylinder shaped base is decorated with heavily molded in relief nudes. The base is a lustrous very fancy brass filigree and is adorned with sparkling large and small faceted amber stones and rectangular pink stones. Signed with the Hoffman Butterfly on the stopper.

Found here

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A Salviati 'Renaissance' double lipped scent bottle.green glass with applied glass in dark turquoise, 4in (10cm) approx, circa 1895.

Originally the perfume would have been decanted into this flask from a large bottle and cork stoppers prevented the scent from evaporating.

Found here.

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A fine Victorian silver combined posy holder, scent bottle and vinegarette*

found here.

* a vinegarette is a small decorative bottle with a perforated lid, used for holding smelling salts or other scented solids.

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A Belle Époque rock crystal & diamond scent bottle by Boucheron.

The rock crystal hexagonal bottle with old-cut diamond floral detail to the fluted dome lid, opening to reveal a faceted rock crystal stopper, circa 1905, 7.3 cm. high. Signed Boucheron Paris

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 Italian perfume bottle ~ dates back to 1500 to 1580

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Comme de Garcons - Odeur 53

Perfumer's Notes: oxygen, flash of metal, fire energy, washing drying in the wind, mineral carbon, sand dunes, nail polish, cellulose, pure air of the high mountains, ultimate fusion, burnt rubber, flaming rock

My Impressions: clean yet stale, metallic, acrid...what are these notes? opening the window of a newish car on a hot summer’s day and getting a swirl of hot car fugginess & fresh summer breeze in the same breath.

ten minutes: strange & unpleasant. I assume this should be all about the fresh air scent & that the hot, stale car interior plastic fugg note is a result of my chemistry. it’s a shame, because when I can filter out the nauseating plasticness, the remaining juice is dynamic & has a unique freshness to it...I can’t place what that fresh scent is, but it’s not a generic “air” fresh scent, it’s something else, something electric, metallic, razor sharp

twenty minutes: I wish I could filter out the fuggy plastic note. pew!

half an hour: fug is fading into something else, but I can’t yet tell exactly what. maybe a woody note? something cleaner & more delectable on the nose

forty-five minutes: still metamorphizing. too muddled to make out what it’s going to be, but I’m intrigued by this change for the better

an hour & a half: transformation complete: now the juice has an unusual woody note. not a green wood, not pine, not a rain forest wood, a dry wood, but not cedar. it’s a variety of wood that I’ve never smelled before

two & a half hours: curious, dry, spare wood & bright, high air freshness with a metallic swirl

three hours: this has been a really strange ride; I’m not sure if I like this scent or not, but I definitely appreciate what it turned into. the wood scent is really captivating. occasionally, I get a hint of that plastic fug note again, but then it vanishes. confusing, interesting, attention-keeping

four & a half hours: same. weird scent. while I don’t like it, I meta like it. I like that it evokes strong feelings in me & mystified me the entire way through. looking now at what the notes are supposed to be, I viscerally experienced nearly all of those notes, even as I struggled to find the names for them; they’re all there, true to life, fascinating, a scented ride into new territory. I don’t think I’d buy this; the burnt rubber note was too dominant & unpleasant to my nose for me to be willing to suffer through it on the way to that pure cellulose/air/metal trinity at the end. but, this juice has caused me to relook at the comme de garcons line of perfumes & pick a few of the more unusual offerings they have, for future review

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A Stuart 'medallion cameo' scent bottle, two colour on crystal, cut with fuschias and a butterfly, silver mounted, circa 1887

Found here.

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By Killian - In the City of Sin

Perfumer's Notes: bergamot, pink pepper, guatemalan cardamom, apricot, plum, turkish rose, incense, atlas cedar, patchouli

My Impressions: the sweetness of orange blossom or other citrus notes. a hint of powder. resins, possibly labdanum, elemi or frankincense. also a synthetic, sharp ozone aldehyde note that is also calling up a whiff of a chemical perfumy smell

ten minutes: a simple, sweet citrus & resins blend - maybe some stone fruit in there too, cherries perhaps. despite the mix of interesting notes, the overall feel is bland & generic. I know other juices that do these notes far more appealingly, like L'Artisan’s  Passage D'Enfer (http://allofthescents.tumblr.com/search/D'Enfer)

twenty minutes: the perfumy scent begins to dominate. very synthetic & plasticy smelling - fuggying & overwhelming the other notes. also a hint of baby powder developing

half an hour: synthetic note is fading out, leaving me with powder citrus & resin accords. boooooooring!

an hour:  bland, stale, mediocre. I’m unpleasantly surprised that this juice has several accords that I adore & yet smell so flat & uninviting on me. I blame that acrid synthetic note; even though it’s no longer dominant, it’s still in there, making a mess of things under the surface

two hours: still a boring, bland, messy melange of ick

three & a half hours: the juice has begun to morph into a purely synthetic grossness. I’m starting to think all By Killian perfumes use a base ingredient (a preservative maybe?) that just doesn’t agree with me. I’ve had this same issues with a few other brands, most notably biehl parfumkunstwerke, which invariably turns into a swamp gassy stench on me

five hours: still a stinker. luckily, the sillage is so low that I can’t actually smell it on me unless I press my nose to my wrist, which I won’t be doing anymore

this is why I changed my perfume buying so that I’d purchase two or three samples from a number of  brands, instead buying half a dozen from one or two brands - if the first couple samples are total stinkers, then I don’t want to have wasted my money buying so many samples that are all going to dry down into pure ick on me

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A renaissance revival eighteen karat gold and rock crystal perfume bottle, French, circa 1890

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Huitieme Art - Poudre de Riz

Perfumer's Notes: damask rose, tiare absolute, coconut, vanilla, rice powder accord (caramelic, burnt toast and maple notes), sandalwood, iris, cedar, tonka bean, Tolu balsam and benzoin resin

My Impressions: soft, slippery, oily, smells more like a perfume oil than a perfume. very light, sweet, comforting. a hint of orange, perhaps. the namesake rice note spreads itself at the base of the scent profile

twenty minutes: this reminds me of a posh version of avon’s skin so soft bath oil. I haven’t smelled that since the early nineties, but wow is this juice taking me back to my mom’s bathroom! mind you, it is a posh version of that scent, so I’m getting a fancy nostalgia trip out of this, but no real urge to slather my skin with it

half an hour: the skin so soft note is fading back; a sweet rice flour & sugar syrup scent wrapped in a hint of vanilla has come to the fore. reminds me of the sweet rice shell of a mochi from minamoto kitchoan, but without the luscious, flavorful center. the simplicity of this juice doesn’t feel like the point; it feels unfinished, incomplete

forty-five minutes: a powder note is infiltrating the juice, smoothing away even more of the dimension, making it bland

an hour & a half: converting to a powdery juice. the sillage is non-existent. unless I shove my nose against my wrist, I can’t smell it at all

two hours: a hint of benzoin is developing; the juice is back to being a more sophisticated & rich skin so soft

three & a half hours: well, once again Paloma has decided that I smell delicious and is trying to lick this juice off. bad kitty...

four hours: the added benzoin note did wonders for pulling this juice together, but the final scent is that of a barely there, elegant riff on sss. it’s not terrible, by any means. I’d enjoy smelling this one someone - if there was enough sillage to actually get a whiff of it. I’ll probably keep it around for the novelty of having a juice that smells like skin so soft, but in terms of the kind of olfactory glory I’m searching for, this juice doesn’t do it

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Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier - Ambre Precieux Ultime

Perfumer's Notes: myrtle, lavender, coumarin, vanilla, nutmeg, labdanum cistus, incense, balm of Peru, tolu, grey amber

My Impressions: amber, marshmallow (the herb, not the confection), caramelized sugar. a hint of something herbal/medicinal, maybe horehound or wormwood. pleasing, through slightly off-balance. I believe this is a juice that needs a few minutes to organize itself

ten minutes: the sweet caramelized sugar & marshmallow notes have faded down to a lick of sweetness sandwiched between amber & the medicinal notes. this reminds me of a apothecary/barber/sweet shop near my grandmother’s house. my dad would go for a shave & I’d get a candy to suck on while poking around all the enormous glass bottles & jars. the overall effect of this juice is nostalgic & well-balanced. the notes play well together

half an hour: same note balance, but the juice has sunk into my skin & melded with my chemistry. I’m enjoying it a lot more than I did when it was sitting on top of my skin. the notes themselves have also fused in a well-balanced way. while the notes are still distinct they flow into each other, rather than leaping

an hour: looking at the notes, I believe the medicinal notes I detect are the balm of Peru. I want to commit that scent to memory for future perfumes; I may get a small sample of balm of Peru so that I can fully appreciate the range of this note. while the composition has nearly remained the same, a powder note - probably from the development of the coumarin - is blooming

an hour & a half: the powder note is becoming stronger. it’s the scent of finely ground rice flour, rather than talcum powder or baby powder. though pleasant, this morph into powdery softness is a journey I’m all too familiar with. if this is where the juice is headed, I’m not interested

three hours: powder is the predominant note, though amber & balm of Peru remain in the background. though it is lovely & could be pleasing to many, this is too boring to me with the added powder note

four hours: almost entirely powder now. nice, but ‘nice’ perfumes finish last. I look for more than merely nice in my scents. not a loser, but not a winner either. I’ll probably swap this sample with a friend to try a different juice

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finding samples...

though this article is well over five years old, it is a goldmine of places to find samples for your smelling pleasure. I can personally attest to the excellence of luckyscent for buying samples. I’ve also bought a number of samples at the perfumed court. PC’s shipping is hit or miss - sometimes I’ve had my samples within a few days, other times, it’s been a wait time of nearly a month, with nary an explanation why. But, as PC has a number of discontinued perfumes (and is where I paid an absurd amount of money for a precious 8ml bottle of Guerlain’s Iris Ganache (totally worth it), going through that site for rare perfumes can be the only option sometimes.

I haven’t tried the trick of bringing my own bottles and asking to do my own decants at stores yet. I think my own inner coward wouldn’t really allow for that to be a pleasurable experience. I have asked for fragrance samples at various Manhattan Sephoras - success there has varied wildly and seems to depend on the whims and personal feelings of both the sales staff and managers. I’ve had SAs be wildly generous, and give me the sample I requested (while watching their manager look on with vague disapproval), as well as offer me samples to other juices I was eyeing. I’ve also been treated like a reprobate for asking for a single sample. As I (like the nst writer) am a regular shopper at Sephora and buy quite a bit of product there, I did challenge the last SA who treated me like grubby scum for asking for a freebie to look up my account and see that I was a regular customer who might stop being a regular customer if the attitude didn’t get toned down a notch. A manager who overheard the exchange sent that particular SA away, apologized, and gave me several other freebies as a peace offering.

So there are options, but if you (like me) generally don’t like confrontation over a sample at a perfume counter, I’d highly recommend ordering online.

Happy Sniffing!

-eee

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Perfume vial by Telca Firm, France, composed of Agate with Enamel, Gold and Rubies, ~1900.                                                                                                     

I love the way gemstone perfume vials look. Not something I’ll ever be able to afford, I imagine, but I’m happy to drool over the decadent images and fantasize about the perfumes that they’ve held...

[allofthescents]

Fueguia 1833 - Pulperia

Perfumer's Notes: cedar, pepper, elemi

My Impressions: perfumy, woody, spicy. patchouli. this is simple wood-spice, with a hint of musk/civet. I feel like there might be something softer in there too, a note that my nose can't consciously pick out, but makes this into a less aggressive wood-spice-civet scent

ten minutes: still woody, spicy civet, but also with that whiff of ammonia that often occurs when I try on a juice with civet. not bad yet, but I’m wary. there’s also a hint of a band-aid note

twenty minutes: oh delight! the ammonia note is fading, leaving lovely spiced-wood civet

half an hour: the band-aid note (which isn't bad, just different) has a more dominant role now, but still backed up by the original accord

forty-five minutes: the band-aid note has eased off & melded into the woody, spiced civet. the civet still hasn't gone over into ammonia stench; this is somewhat miraculous

two & a half hours: fading out to light civet. it’s a delicate civet, though it’s still retained that rankly enjoyable sweaty sex flavor

three & a half hours: holding true to soft civet. on the simple side of perfumes, though pleasurable. I deeply appreciate finally finding a civet that doesn't go bad on me. not full bottle worthy, but I will use up this sample as I decide if I want to get a small decant

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Bruno Fazzolari - Lampblack

Perfumer's Notes: sweet orange, black pepper, bitter grapefruit, nagamotha, benzoin, vetiver, shadow

My Impressions: anise. a sparkingly high aldehyde note. something fresh, but a unique freshness; not generic fresh air accord. a hint of lemon

ten minutes: lemons & summer air with a woody incense note barely visible underneath

twenty minutes: the lemon has shifted into a meatier tangelo note, juicey & fruity without a hint of the generic fruity bubble gum accord that fruit scents often develop. I feel sunshine on my back, grass below my feet, & the stickiness of tangelo juice clinging to my lips

forty-five minutes: nearly the same balance as before, but (sadly) with an added perfumy note. damn. I was really enjoying this, but here comes that gross perfumy note to ruin the party

an hour & a half: perfuminess is now primary note, with a tang of citrusy summer air asphyxiating in the background

three hours: generic, synthetic perfume scent. summer has been smothered in chemical death

six hours: still perfumy & foul, but apparently delicious to some cats. since getting home, my Paloma has spent all her time trying to lick my arm where I applied this juice, & lunging fruitlessly at me when I keep her away from my arm. I’m going to wash this off because she accidentally poisons herself