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julie
I laugh to keep from hitting somebody
Interests: perfume, art, music, cities, humor, teaching
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I should add, I don't like being tethered to a device, and I don't pick up when driving. How ridiculous is it that I should lose a job because I'm at a concert, with my phone OFF? How does the sub pool skew when the tethered ones are getting all the work?
(Patience!)
Jobulator rant
So it has come to this: Scheduling is automated via Aesop®, and retrieving jobs is via Jobulator®, ostensibly more convenient than sitting at one's computer hitting "refresh" endlessly". Well. If anything, in the dog-eat-dog world that Jobulator has unleashed, a sub job goes not to the best fit...
I had better get some. After all, it's nearly named for me!
Jules by Christian Dior (1980)
I was recently given some romantic advice about men that I find pertinent to this fragrance review. Stop going for the flashy, obnoxious, weird extroverts, a particularly astute person told me, and begin to notice the quiet, watchful guys who aren’t vying for your — or anyone’s — attention. Th...
Yep, that's the scene that got me to the movie. I have a mini of the old formulation, so in the interest of luring new sniffers to old scents, don't include me in the drawing.
Enter to Win the "American Hustle" Flowers and Garbage, Diorella Perfume Giveaway!
Rosalyn: There’s this top coat that you can only get from Switzerland and I don’t know what I’m going to do because I’m running out but I love the smell of it. Irving and I can’t get enough of it. There’s something…the top coat…It’s like perfumey but there’s also something rotten and I know ...
Just got a smidgen of Fidji, vintage uncertain, from a basenotes friend. The top shares a lot with my beloved Weil de Weil; the base is more spice than leather. Curiosity satisfied. Since I have about four ounces of the Weil de Weil PdT, I'm set for galbanum-laced hyacinth infused greenies.
Fidji by Guy Laroche (1966)
My earliest perfume memory involves tiny perfume bottles from Hawaii given to me by my father. Housed side by side in a clear plastic box, the squat, round bottles were crowned with plastic caps shaped like their representative flowers — pikkake, orange blossom, and orchid — and I still remembe...
Do a year-end sniff and re-sniff of the bounty of samples received this year. Am I getting osmanthus, in addition, here? I'm smelling something that is my impression of osmanthus, which I'll admit I'm not great at picking out, but would call a dusty apricot rather than peach.
Que Sais-Je? by Jean Patou (1925)
Fashion designer Jean Patou (1887- 1936), known for sportswear that is said to have influenced even Coco Chanel, cemented his name in history with the release of the classic floral perfume Joy. Marketed as “the costliest perfume in the world” for its use of rose and jasmine in unprecedentedly h...
I must have 70 decants at home, courtesy of some kind "fume friends". I will surely set some aside to pass on. Caron and I get along, and who doesn't get along w/Patou?
Que Sais-Je? by Jean Patou (1925)
Fashion designer Jean Patou (1887- 1936), known for sportswear that is said to have influenced even Coco Chanel, cemented his name in history with the release of the classic floral perfume Joy. Marketed as “the costliest perfume in the world” for its use of rose and jasmine in unprecedentedly h...
I'm swimming in samples from a friend, including Caron Acaciosa and QueSais-je? I tried the Acaciosa first, a sweet and sour honeyed fruit and floral that is all sunshine to me, simply glorious. Que Sais-je? is all that on a chypre base. I get some amber there, too. Sumptuous.
Que Sais-Je? by Jean Patou (1925)
Fashion designer Jean Patou (1887- 1936), known for sportswear that is said to have influenced even Coco Chanel, cemented his name in history with the release of the classic floral perfume Joy. Marketed as “the costliest perfume in the world” for its use of rose and jasmine in unprecedentedly h...
Just got 1/4 oz of the parfum on ebay for a song! Felt a little bad when the lucite top cracked, tho it seals just fine. HMFS, this stuff is sublime! Agree 100% with the H&R notes. This is another in the pantheon of they-don't-make-them-like-they-used-to womanly aledhydes, a sister to Chamade and Miss Dior, a bit more distantly related to two other favorites, Miss Balmain, and My Sin. I know of no contemporary fragrance that socks it to me like these greats.
Infini by Caron (1972)
Like a mini Coriandre (1973), rosy and herby Infini by Caron is an edgy floral aldehyde with a distinctly '70s kind of sophistication. It starts out with a strong coriander note, which creates an interesting dry counterpoint to the juicy peach, sweet neroli, and rich rose that bloom as the fra...
Love this, and yes, it is both well-behaved and interesting. I get some ginger in there, too.
Nocturnes de Caron (1981)
Nocturnes has all the hallmarks of a femme fatale perfume, but its restraint and subtlety mark it as a charming ingénue rather than a dangerous lady. A restrained, balanced, and yet multifaceted floral with a lot going on, Nocturnes de Caron could change the minds of all but the most stubborn ...
OK, I really didn't want to be the first commenter—way too fangirl—but here I am anyway. I guess this makes me an impresario; I feel like Serge f'n Diaghilev! bonne chance and בהצלחה (;
I Launched an Indiegogo Campaign for My Book
Dear Readers, For the past four years, I've been collecting, sniffing and writing about vintage perfume on this blog. I've done it as a labor of love (as I hope is obvious!), and I'm grateful that I get a chance to pour more of that passion into my new book, Scent and Subversion: A Century of P...
Most excellent. And—you have a face! I did guess you for a brunette of the sultry variety.
Basenotes Interviewed Me About Vintage Perfume Collecting: Check It Out!
Lila Das Gupta of Basenotes recently interviewed me about vintage perfume collecting, my favorite perfumes, and my upcoming book Scent and Subversion: A Century of Provocative Perfume. Check it out! And since 99.9% of you have no idea what I look like — there's a rare photo of me! (I hate getti...
Hello, again. As it happened I put on a sample of Chanel 19 this morning, and thought WdW immediately, so of course I had to revisit your posts on both. Amazing, both born in 1971. bittergracenotes sums up WdW in a sentence, here the link,
http://bittergracenotes.blogspot.com/2009/06/one-sentence-perfume-review-weil-de.html
but I'll spare you the suspense: "It's the smell of a swamp in Paradise."
19 disappears on my skin. I'm passing around my Weils on basenotes and expect WdW will get a lot of love.
Weil de Weil (1971)
Have you ever experienced a perfume change seasons, evolving from a fresh spring morning to a sweltering summer day? Well, try out Weil de Weil, and you’ll know what I mean. It’s a gorgeous sunny day here in Berkeley, and it’s making me long for consistently warm weather. Although I have many...
I'm in Cleveland, would love to break the Tish b'Av fast with Muslims. There's got to be a community gathering somewhere...
Rosh Chodesh Av; Ramadan Mubarak
A sliver of new moon. This morning I woke to an email from Rabbi Arthur Waskow which began: Tonight (July 19, 2012), as the New Moon glimmers, the Jewish and Muslim communities both enter a solemn month, known to one as Ramadan and the other as Av. In both, fasting takes on great importance a...
Just wore Yatagan today and got straight-on cigar store. I don't get pee at all. Don't know if it is vintage or current—it was a sample—but if current, most satisfactory, most available, and...most cheap (:
What Vintage or Discontinued Perfume Do You Want to Know More About?
I have a reader named Julie who is obsessed with Weil's Mollie Parnis. Mollie who? you may ask, as I did. Apparently, Mollie Parnis came out in 1978, and it seems to me to have orange blossom, maybe Persicol or some peach note, and perhaps vanilla, oakmoss and/or musk. (Emphasis on the "seems....
At long last, opened the sealed extrait, here's the deed on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmunot_juliana/sets/72157630561279554/
It will take a couple days for all of Arpège's nuances to register in my nose. ist impression is dry, with, yes, cigarette smoke overlaying whatever has transpired.
I wonder if one is either an Arpège gal or a My Sin type. If so, I'm more a My Sin type. She's blowsier, whereas Arpège knows how to keep a secret. Of course, three days hence, there may be new discoveries, as those secrets unfold.
spice herbal incense, I love your description re: Vertigo, a favored film.
Arpege by Lanvin (1927)
I keep thinking that I'm going to get tired of my vintage perfume acquisitions, but like a true addict, I become obsessed anew, waiting with bated breath for the next one. I feel like I'm suddenly living life on a new planet — a new, deliciously smelly planet! Enter Arpege, a gorgeous and comp...
As it happens, I just bought a fan. New, suitable inspired, I shall scent it. I think Mitsouko will be a good choice. To me it has that "mom's scarf drawer" accord that causes me to prefer it sprayed on something other than myself. Might as well endure menopause in style!
Flashback: Perfumed Fans ("évantails") Used to Be a Thing
As regular readers of this blog know, I'm as interested in perfume culture as I am in perfume itself. So imagine my delight when I was reading one of my favorite blogs, World of Wonder, and came across this awesome excerpt from Arlene Dahl's 1965 advice book, unfortunately titled Always Ask a M...
Hooray! Octavian's on board. Let me send you Diane von Furstenberg's Volcan d'Amour. It's another heady and hard-to-find dark amber juice with some resemblance to Mollie Parnis, tho a more incensy drydown. Discontinued, it is an 80s powerhouse that teeters between head shop and Studio 54.
As to Mollie's drydown, I was so in love with that ketonic peachy blast it opens with (and that I sustain through the crafty cotton wad in the bra trick) that I'm only now appreciating the drydown. What do I smell? Honeyed tobacco and leather. I think that for a less experienced nose like mine, note identification can be a matter of associations, sometimes even childhood memories. Yatagan, for instance, reminds me of the half smoked ciagrs my grandfather left lying in an ashtray, a smell I just loved, but who would admit to "old cigar" accord?
What Vintage or Discontinued Perfume Do You Want to Know More About?
I have a reader named Julie who is obsessed with Weil's Mollie Parnis. Mollie who? you may ask, as I did. Apparently, Mollie Parnis came out in 1978, and it seems to me to have orange blossom, maybe Persicol or some peach note, and perhaps vanilla, oakmoss and/or musk. (Emphasis on the "seems....
It means Calvino brings perfume to literature the way other authors bring music or visual art. He validates perfume as the olfactory art.
Perfume Quote of the Day: Italo Calvino's "The Name, The Nose"
"Epigraphs in an undecipherable language, half their letters rubbed away by the sand-laden wind: this is what you will be, O parfumeries, for the noseless man of the future. You will still open your doors to us, your carpets will still muffle our footsteps, you will receive us in your jewel-box...
turn up the volume to hear the crunches and nomnoms =:)
Most adorable morsel ever?
Eeeee!! How did he get so tiny? At first I was like; 'Is that real?' and then I nearly passed out from the cuteness. Enjoy :)
Funny you should mention Mad Men. I just got a bottle of Oscar del Pareta's Volupté off ebay. The stylized bottle and the floral green fragrance convinced me this was a 60s relic, and I indeed thought Mad Men. Happens it is from 1992, by Sophia Grojsman. It would suit Megan, I think.
Here's a photo link: http://www.valentineperfume.com/product_thumbnail_images/t_24593.jpg
What Perfume Would the Women of Mad Men Wear?
Last Sunday, fans of AMC’s Mad Men were treated to a return of the addictive drama about the golden age of advertising on Madison Avenue during the tumultuous 1960s. Mad Men gives us a glimpse into what it might have felt like to witness that era's politico-cultural changes from the viewpoint o...
teehee, so, I'm not the only one who talks all high and whispery when the subject is bunnies! So cute.
Adorable Flower Munching!
Of course, it's cuter when it's not YOUR flowers... but whatever, I'd be cool with constantly replenishing the flower "buffet" if I got to be friends with this little bun. :D So cute!!
Don't forget Estee Lauder Private Collection!
In Honor of St. Patrick's Day: My Favorite Green Scents
My Chinese sign is earth Rooster, so even though I'm not a sporty, outdoorsy tree-hugger (OK, well, I have hugged trees before, but chemicals were involved, and I digress), I express that earthy nature by being keen on green when it comes to perfume. What is a green scent, exactly? According to...
Did I send you Mayotte amongst those little decants? Maybe not, could have been to another friend...
Jungle Gardenia by Tuvaché (1932)
Jungle Gardenia by Tuvaché has been on my radar for some time. I discovered it not on perfume blogs or forums, but rather during a typical nighttime eBay expedition, trawling for vintage perfume. (Hey, we all have our vices, OK?) How can this nondescript-looking perfume with the silly name that...
hmmmm, given my Jones for Mollie Parnis, sounds as if this should be my next Dior purchase—having just scored some vintage Miss Dior.
Christian Dior Diorama (1949)
As a minimalist and fan of the angular and the extreme in fragrances, I can appreciate, on an aesthetic level, the amazingly blended and balanced Diorama by Edmond Roudnitska, but because of its fruitiness, its spiciness, its powderiness — its too muchness — I cannot love it. Diorama is spicy,...
I also liked the Jovan Island Gardenia, which is on ebay at not extravagant prices. I also know now, that the appeal of Guerlain's Mayotte is the gardenia, on a ride with its friends tuberose, frangipani, and ylang-ylang.
Jungle Gardenia by Tuvaché (1932)
Jungle Gardenia by Tuvaché has been on my radar for some time. I discovered it not on perfume blogs or forums, but rather during a typical nighttime eBay expedition, trawling for vintage perfume. (Hey, we all have our vices, OK?) How can this nondescript-looking perfume with the silly name that...
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