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Coco Chanel.

Speaking of arrogance, let’s talk about coco!

I purchased coco last fall. truth be told, it was not planned.

I ran out of no 5, which you should know by now happens to be, the apple to my eye,  the love of my life. My muse. My flame. (Did i mention my one and only)? I convinced myself (very ineffectively might i add) that i should pick a different fragrance for once, broaden my horizon if you will. It was then that my nose caught the scent of ‘cristalle’ (review coming up soon) and ‘coco’ both by the house of Chanel for obvious reasons. For the love of all that’s dear to me, i could not choose between these two to save my life. They are so different yet so similar. After annoying every single employee at the store, asking about their personal tastes between the two fragrances, having them cornered till they started to show signs of ptsd, i finally went home accompanied by a bottle of ‘cristalle’. I felt very pleased and fulfilled with my purchase yet suddenly en route towards my home, i caught the scent of something stunning. Broken hearted i concluded that this scent happened to be ‘coco’ wich stuck to my wrist after testing, and she smiled at me teasingly. It was right then and there that i knew i could postpone the purchase but i would eventually cave and buy a bottle of ‘coco’ online after a few days would pass.

So i did! ‘Coco’ and ‘Cristalle’ share very similar features or so it appears. Their base is almost exactly the same accept, ‘coco’ is quite opulent and rich. It has been described by others as a baroque fragrance to wich i totally agree. I don’t think i had ever smelled something that screamed baroque this loud before. I never even stopped to think to compare any fragrance to the word ‘baroque’ really. Before i met ‘coco’ this would have never ever made sense to me. Yet for some reason in this case, it just makes total sense! While ‘cristalle’ shares similar qualities, ‘cristalle’ acts as but a whisper. I think they are both quite arrogantic yet ‘coco’ is not afraid to show that. ‘Coco’ is not cold. it is present. When you enter a room wearing ‘coco’ you have definitely arrived! It’s nonchalance and it’s loud voice add somewhat of a more likeable trait then ‘cristalle’. Compared to cristalle, coco acts kind of like that one loud and brutally honest aunt during family dinners with the high updo, raspy voice and totally uncalled for sexual anecdotes.

Coco is veery boozy to me. At first sniff it immediately reminds me of an evening spent in a concert hall. It’s a little clammy inside, you can smell the oils from the wooden instruments mixed with the faint scent of a gents cigar. People are sipping on strong liqueurs, Marylin Monroe just performed the opening song (yes, this concert hall situation takes place in the 50’s deal with it). It’s freezing cold outside. And this lady in the back keeps laughing and shrieking just a tad too loud. Unfortunately this will not work as a signature fragrance, for me at least. I feel like i truly have to respect ‘coco’. I have to be in a certain mood to be able to pull it off. It is great to have ‘coco’ in my collection and it will be something that i will repurchase on occasion though this bottle is probably going to last me a lifetime since i barely wear it. I ended up buying the 200 ml of Chanel no 5 a few months later since i just missed my signature scent. So 3 bottles of new perfumes nobody needed and a giant bleeding hole in my wallet later, here we are. I regret nothing. I deeply admire ‘coco’. It is a wonderful scent with great silage and longevity just like no 5. It won’t leave your skin all day and it will still be there the next, if you don’t shower. (But maybe you should just shower).

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YSL Opium:

What can i say about ‘Opium’ by ‘YSL’ that hasn’t already been said? I don’t rightly know. I do know that this scent does not receive as much credit as it deserves nowadays and i wanted to share my take on it. ’Opium’ is a lost gem. They do not make perfumes like this anymore which is a damn shame. In my ‘Chanel no 5’ review i mention the following:

I love perfumes that are ‘pretty’ but for me to relate to it, it needs this ‘kick’ this ‘punch in the face’. When people smell me, i want them to be like: wow she smells so warm and fun, so pretty yet also, she smells like she has seen some shit.

This remains true. Therefore i feel drawn to the more ‘animalic’ and ‘skanky’ perfumes. I love fragrances that will make me smell like i have been hiding in a tent all day smoking weed en huffing patchouli incense. I’m still a lady and all, but i am brought up in the Netherlands and i have always been surrounded by crusty hippies so i might as well smell like one.

‘YSL’s Opium’ does exactly that for me. It’s so mature and it oozes sophistication, yet it’s so opulent and insency it is not for someone who does not like to draw attention to oneself. This smells like the real deal ya’ll. This is not a mere ghost of what has been like a lot of modern perfumes, this is the actual event. It is not very animalic. It’s more medicinal then anything else. It smells of insence and spices. I would say i sense clove but that’s a lie. The EDP used to contain clove but not since the 2009 reformulations if i recall correctly. When i fist purchased a bottle, which is but two months ago, the lack of clove was the first thing i noticed since i am very familiar with the vintage formulations. Because of this it initially seemed to lack the much needed spiced kick in the gut this used to give me. I had to get reacquainted with this scent for a couple of days, yet soon figured that this scent, though tweaked a little, is still as beautiful as ever and one of my forever favorites.

It reminds me of nag-champa, patchouli, Coca Cola even and cough syrup in the best possible way. It’s a little sticky but i love sticky scents. It smells like this fragrance should have this syrupy texture. Somewhere in the dry down i can sense this cooling sensation peeking through the dense sticky, syrupy clouds of herbs and spices witch lightens up the overall mood of this scent. Maybe that’s the tuberose’s doing, i’m not really sure.

I do know that this fragrance has been labeled as a ‘grandma scent’. way too often. It’s cruel words like these that should never be spoken! This is not granny-esque. Not in the slightest. This to me smells like the period between the ending of suffrage and the freedom of Woodstock. This smells like an aristocrat by day, crusty dried up hippie by night. In short. Perfection.

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Chanel 5:

Boy, only few scents have ever owned me as much as no 5 owns me. I once sniffed this one out when i was 19 years old (and undoubtably way too immature to pull this beauty off) and i absolutely had to get myself a bottle. I managed to save up some money and purchased the 100 ml EDP for the first time in my life. It was love at first scent.

I am Michelle (hello Michelle) and i have ADHD. This has always reflected itself in my wardrobe my hairstyles and definitely my perfume collection. So when i say that ever since that particular moment, when i bought my very first bottle of Chanel no 5, there has never been another signature scent for me. That was it. I had found the one. Then that freakin means something. Especially since this hasn’t changed in almost 10 years.

I love perfumes that are ‘pretty’ but for me to relate to it, it needs this ‘kick’ this ‘punch in the face’. When people smell me, i want them to be like: wow she smells so warm and fun, so pretty yet also, she smells like she has seen some shit. That’s exactly what i want my perfume to say. Chanel’s no 5 does it all for me.

It’s mature and lady-like, yet it is not as arrogantic as Chanel fragrances sometimes tend to be. Even though it still owns its fair share of haughtiness. no 5 is not unreachable. It’s warm and familiar. I find it very comforting and if i could pick a color for this fragrance it would def. be gold. Fitting as colors go.

Chanel no 5 EDP, after the first spritz is immediately very bright and fizzy. It’s extremely aldehydic (which is what it’s best known for actually). For those who do not know what to think of when someone mentions the aldehydes in no 5, imagine the smell of ‘’outside’’. A clean summer breeze. The scent of a storm coming, yet everything is still bright outside. It even reminds me a bit of freshly done, laid out laundry. That is the opening of Chanel no 5. As it settles on my skin i can usually smell the ‘Lilly of the valley’’ in there, which gives this scent such a classic feel to me. I usually tend to stay away from Lilly of the valley since it can sometimes smell a bit dated. Not in my trusty no 5 though, no sir. It’s just very warm cozy and creamy even, the ylangylang probably plays a part in that.

When the dry down kicks in, the scent switches from being creamy to soapy in the best possible way. That’s what makes this scent so wearable to me. The soapy feel keeps it from being too fluffy. It also balances out the warmer notes very well. No 5 is not too sweet. I don’t fully know if you can even call this a ‘sweet’ perfume to begin with. But whatever you may call this non-sweet sweetness, the soapy feel keeps it fresh simultaneously. I could mention all the different notes and their purpose yet that would not make any sense to me since they go together, so swell. This scent is so well rounded that besides maybe the Lilly of the valley and the ylangylang, you won’t really be able to identify them anyway. It is still a Chanel of course. You can smell Chanel’s signature all over the place. The base of this perfume is the base of Chanel as a brand it’s everywhere. Yet the creamy and soapy feel keep this fragrance friendly enough for it to be timeless and perfectly wearable on a daily basis depending on your personal style.

Right now, i own a 200 ml bottle of the EDP. I expect this to last me for about two years or so, since the 100 ml lasted exactly one year while using it every single day. :-) The silage and longevity of this perfume are absolutely perfect! Spray this however you’d like. I like to follow madame coco’s advise on spraying perfume and i tend to spray ‘wherever I’d like to be kissed’. It stays all day, you won’t have to reapply (even though i am guilty of reapplying when i get a li’l hungry for the aldehydic outburst that lingers after the opening, i sometimes tend to overspray because of this). A few spritzes will be enough to keep you covered in this cozy soapy warm and fluffy bubble. I get tons of compliments from strangers whenever i wear this. I think that’s because it leaves such a comforting trail behind whenever you pass someone. It will never be suffocating it’s just very very pleasant and breezy.

If i could only pick one perfume to last a lifetime, i would def. pick Chanel’s no 5. It will forever be my ride or die fragrance.

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Lush ‘Tank Battle’  Het is toch wel een kleine eeuwigheid geleden dat ik parfum heb gekocht van ‘Lush’.  Ik ontdekte ‘Karma’ van lush via een vriendin van mij. Ik was onder de indruk van de warme wierookachtige geur waarvan ze overal waar ze kwam een spoor achterliet dat haar stappen volgde. ‘Karma’ was net zoals ‘Tank Battle’ niet zomaar voor iedereen. Dat hebben ze gemeen. Op een dag kocht ik mijn eigen flesje karma en ik was opslag verliefd.  Helaas heeft Lush kort daarna haar parfum formules verandert. Dat flesje karma dat ik toen heb gekocht, was tevens ook de laatste. De geur was niet langer hetzelfde. Het rook verwaterd. En dit bleek het ook. Bovenaan in de ingrediënten lijst stonden plots twee nieuwe toevoegingen, namelijk: ‘water’ en ‘glycerine’. Dit ontnam de geur van zijn diepte en warmte. Het deed mij eerder nog denken aan een dure bodyspray dan een EDP. Het karakter waar ik zo van hield was weg, en daarmee mijn liefde voor de ‘lush’ geuren, gezien ik wanhopig in de winkel op zoek ben gegaan naar vervanging voor mijn karma verslaving. Helaas tevergeefs.  Nu alsnog  vele jaren later, zit ik dan toch tevreden met twee lush parfums in mijn hand. ‘Lust’ en ‘Tank Battle’ (maar over Lust vertel ik een andere keer meer). Tank Battle is een gelukkige blind buy geweest. In mijn eeuwige zoektocht naar nieuwe bijzondere parfum finds, tuimelde ik op reviews over deze geur. Tank Battle klonk voor mij bijna te mooi om waar te zijn. Alles waar ik van houd, in een glazen flesje. De woorden: Wierrook, aardbeien kauwgum, verf, metaal en natte aarde vlogen voorbij in alle reviews die ik bezocht. Ik maakte mij alsnog zorgen om de formule van de geur gezien mijn teleurstelling in andere geuren waar ik vroeger zo’n fan van ben geweest. Sceptisch maar erg nieuwsgierig waagde ik de sprong en hier heb ik zeker geen spijt van. Tank Battle is gebaseerd op een rechtszaak in Amerika. De rechtszaak betrof een man die zijn woning had gemaakt van een oude leegstaande watertank. De watertank zag er kennelijk zeer imposant uit gezien de beste man hier een heus kunstwerk van heeft gemaakt. Dit trok de aandacht van de overheid en deze wilde de tank verwijderen. Voor iedereen die hier nieuwsgierig van wordt, ik raad je aan hier meer over te lezen. Op de website van Lush tref je het volledige verhaal. :-)  Toen ik de geur opende rook ik inderdaad wierrook en kauwgom. Kauwgom was ook het eerst dat ik rook bij de eerste spray. Het is gek, maar het werkt. Ik ruik kauwgom, wierrook en natte aarde. Wanneer de geur tot rust komt ruik ik inderdaad metaal maar ook houtachtige kwaliteiten. Het is geen koude geur. Het is een ontzettend nostalgische geur. Het ruikt precies zoals je verwacht dat de binnenkant van een watertank die is omgebouwd tot hippie den, ruikt.  Ik ruik elementen van de vroegere ‘karma’ waar ik zo van hield. De geur opend explosief, maar al snel beperkt de geur zich tot dicht tegen je huid. De geur is sterk genoeg om je te voorzien van een persoonlijke bubbel als het ware, van warme speelse geuren. De geur laat een vriendelijk spoor achter voor de mensen om je heen wanneer je voorbij passeerd maar zal niemand te veel zijn. 

Het is een geur voor de creatieveling, de naar patchouli geurende hippie onder ons. De man of vrouw die precies doet waar hij of zei zelf zin in heeft op de beste manier. Een volwassen geur met veel kinderlijke en speelse kwaliteiten. De geur is plakkerig op de beste manier. :-)  Voor mij blijft ‘Tank Battle’ vanaf dit moment een staple. Ik ben ontzettend blij dat ik de sprong heb gewaagd. Dit heeft mijn ogen voor Lush als bedrijf zeker opnieuw geopend.  

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Welcome

Welkom bij ‘The scent corner’. Een ‘judge free zone’ voor iedereen die net een beetje te wild wordt van een lekker luchtje. Voor iedereen die net als ik, denkt in geuren en wie dit maar al te graag wilt delen met de buitenwereld (maar wie dit toch erg vaak niet doet omdat niet iedereen altijd even geïnteresseerd is in de composities van onze favorite parfums).