2010 in review (version Abigail)

2010 was the year I became exhausted from the onslaught of new releases, most notably the high end niche market. 2010 was also the year I began to lose hope for the future of mainstream perfumery, given that Celebrescents have taken over the market and aren’t going anywhere. It was also the year I found the largest number of reformulations; some of which people aren’t even talking about. I adore vintage perfumes, but I can’t spend my time chasing rainbows, I would much rather find something current and fresh than chase expensive 35 year old vintage bottles whose top notes have been lost.

On the whole this was the year I’ve been the most annoyed, jaded and least excited about anything happening in perfumery. But I’ve forced myself to stop and take note of the fact that if I’m still enthused about a handful of perfumes each year, well, that’s all it takes to keep the fires burning. As long as there are a half dozen or so perfumes that rock my world, whether they be new releases or plain old new to me, that’s what this hobby is all about. Because, let’s face it, I can only wear and enjoy so many fragrances in my lifetime and finding 5-10 winners each year is enough bounty to add to my already burgeoning collection.

It also hasn’t helped that, as Brian has already mentioned, I, too, felt a similar frustration with a strong current of snobbery, elitism and hypocrisy in the perfume blogosphere. For me, this fueled a sense of disinterest in perfume. I finally decided that I should continue to write because I want to offer the perfume community exactly what I, myself, set out to find when I read other blogs. I will continue to write and read only honest, enthusiastic, passionate, moving and fun posts. I would never write and will avoid reading anything with a snobbishly critical tone or a veiled intention or affiliation. I love smelling perfume and that’s all I’m here to communicate.

One thought I’d like to include is that I am so thankful for YOU. The biggest reason is that you make me feel LESS WEIRD!! This Christmas I visited family in North Carolina and for a solid week I felt like an oddball with a strange habit. Three times (not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES) my Mother told me that “so-and-so” requested I not wear perfume when we went out. The craziest part is that all three times were individuals I have never met before so they couldn’t have previously met me whilst wearing a kiloton of Shalimar. I’m sure my Mother mentioned to these folks that I have a business and a blog that’s all about perfume and these individuals decided they didn’t want to spend even a few hours around someone who might be wearing scent. Nobody in my family, extended family or even the endless encounters with Mother’s friends was remotely interested in perfume; they just wanted to be sure I wasn’t wearing any. This made me realize what a unique community we have here. I appreciate you and I value your interest in perfumery and I am hopeful that our numbers grow so I don’t have to spend much time feeling like a crack addict billowing wafts of Alahine in a corner by myself. It’s amazing how many suddenly have asthma when the topic of perfume comes up. Perhaps needless to say, I didn’t wear perfume for an entire week. I only wore it to bed at night.

2010 was the year I found a few beautiful new releases as well as a few scents that were just new to me. Typically I’m a lover of orientals, florientals and chypres but I found myself enjoying a bunch of sheer, light, seemingly simplistic beauties in 2010. Here’s a stream of consciousness list:

Atelier Orange Sanguinne and Trefle Pur: The entire Atelier line is about pure and natural smells. These fragrances smell so realistic, gorgeous and simple it’s easy to overlook them. If you’re like me and tend to prefer orientals, chypres or anything complex you might think “oh yawn” when it comes to a line like Atelier. But, honey, I gotta tell you, Atelier is killer in warm weather. Orange Sanguinne is the juiciest and most pure and realistic blood orange I have ever smelled. On me, Orange Sanguinne never goes sour; it stays perfectly zesty and sweet. Trefle Pur is a softly green scent, all meadows and clovers; it’s so simple yet so perfect for those occasions when you desire a refreshingly cool green scent.

The Different Company de Bachmakov: The Different Company has some great fragrances, most notably Sublime Balkiss and Oriental Lounge. TDC de Bachmakov is a treat for lovers of tea and spices. It wears softly yet stays with you through most of the day. It’s unusual but not overly so, you can wear this without feeling a little odd.
Canturi eau de parfum: I should have reviewed Canturi earlier. Canturi is an old school oriental fragrance. My only complaint is that I wish it was a bit more potent and projected more as it’s rather soft and subtle for an oriental. Canturi isn’t groundbreaking or unusual, rather it’s a classic oriental which was released in 2010, a year in which most releases were anything but classically styled. This alone is why I like it so much. Canturi leans toward the Far East for me; it’s very much an Asian inspired oriental. I smell dry plums and sake and it’s never especially sweet, it’s exceedingly understated. Canturi is a gorgeous oriental housed in my favorite bottle of the year.

Annick Goutal – the whole line: It was earlier this year that I stopped to realize just how exceptional everything from Annick Goutal is with a week long series on several fragrances from AG. There are so many beauties from AG and their newest fragrance called Rose Splendide took me by surprise. I’m never looking for a rose soliflore, but Rose Splendide is not just a rose soliflore. Instead, it’s an intensely green rose, think of the privet scent in AG’s Eau de Camille and add a dash of fresh roses – that is Rose Splendide. Rose Splendide is another one which seems so simple and sheer yet manages never to turn sour the way some rose scents do and also maintains its own unique green character in an endless sea of rosy fragrances.

Guerlain Chamade: I’ve always liked Chamade but just this year I took the time to actually wear Chamade, not just sniff it, and I fell hard. Five years ago, I would have said there was a strong ‘hair spray’ note in Chamade but somehow this has vanished for me. Chamade is astonishing and I’m trying to figure out why I think I must have it in pure parfum. I have so much perfume yet I feel I need a bottle of Chamade in pure parfum. Like soon.

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz: DSH is an enormously talented perfumer and I personally find her orientals and gourmands to be fantastic. This winter I’ve been enjoying Mahjoun, Cimabue and Parfum de Luxe lots and lots. DSH American Beauty is one of my favorites, if not my most favorite, rose perfume. American Beauty wears well year ‘round but I especially enjoy it in winter.

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese and Dior Diorama: both are sublime creations from Edmond Roudnitska; Diorama was created in the 1950’s and Le Parfum de Therese is essentially Diorama’s modern offspring. Diorama wears like an evening scent on me and LPdT feels like a brighter, clearer day-time scent.

Serge Lutens Bas de Soie: a seemingly simple, sheer and lovely Lutens. Bas de Soie snuck up on me and I love its soft iris/hyacinth/Chanel-esque charms. I like it more than Chanel 28 La Pausa which only lasts 17 minutes on me. Bas de Soie lingers for awhile.

Profumi del Forte Roma Imperiale: I previously reviewed this one; it’s basically the softest and most beautiful oriental wrapped in bunny ears.

Honorable mentions:
Jean Patou Joy: I know, this is about as exciting as listing Chanel No. 5, but have you really worn and smelled Joy lately? It’s an animalic floral with attitude by the suitcase.
Guerlain Mitsouko Fleur de Lotus: WHY was this limited edition? It is so incredible!
Ormonde Jayne Tiare: reminds me of Chanel Cristalle but I like it even better.
Solange Cosmic: I’m fixated on this one lately.
Teo Cabanel Alahine: my BFF 4-evah
Vetiver & Leather quandary: I’ve finally concluded my efforts to find a vetiver and a leather that I like. I’m throwing in the towel on vetiver fragrances; I hate them all. I like some classic fragrances considered leathery like Robert Piguet Bandit, but for the most part I don’t like anything that’s strongly leather focused; with the exception being Tom Ford Private Blend Tuscan Leather. Tuscan Leather is dry and herbal and reminds me of the New Mexico desert. It reminds me of cowboys riding on worn leather saddles. This one I love, especially on men.

Happy 2011 to all! And thank you so much for being here :)

Other participating blogs:
Scent Hive
The Non-Blonde
Smelly Blog
Roxana Illuminated Perfume
DSH Notebook
EauMG
A Rose Behind the Thames
All I Am a Redhead
Schreibman's Live
Portland Fragrance Examiner
CaFleureBon
Persolaise
Sorcery of Scent

Serge Lutens Bas de Soie and general thoughts on the Lutens brand

Just about every other perfume blogger has already weighed in on Bas de Soie. I purchased my bottle several months ago, and initially my reaction was “its ok, no big deal” and I didn’t even bother myself with writing a review.

I’m finding that more often than not, I need to experience a perfume for even longer than my usual self inflicted rule which is that I wear a fragrance for a minimum of 2-3 days, before I allow myself to make any sort of judgment on it. And I mean wear it, not a few dabs from a sample vial; instead I either spray liberally from the bottle itself or from a very large spray decant. I have now worn Bas de Soie for at least 7 full days and find myself becoming increasingly enamored with it.

The past few years I have been less and less enthused with anything new from the house of Serge Lutens. I didn’t think much of Nuit de Cellophane and I absolutely despise L’eau de Serge and think it’s a pathetic sell-out. I became so tired of anything with that trademark SL “stewed fruits” vibe that I almost didn’t bother sniffing a number of SL’s scent that were described as such. What I’ve come to realize is that the Serge Lutens brand has pumped out 50 fragrances between the years of 1992-2010 (see chronological list below). Of these 50 fragrances, I find only a handful truly remarkable, unusual and breathtaking. What I’ve come to realize is that the house of Serge Lutens isn’t suddenly changing or churning out a bunch of sell-outs (which even if some of the newest releases are sell-outs, we need to keep in mind that the house of SL is a business and need to profit lest they cease to exist). There is nothing wrong with creating fragrances that more mainstream consumers will like, in fact, if that’s what keeps SL in business, then I’m completely happy with that business model.

One issue with me and the Serge Lutens brand is that I’ve become tired of its exalted status. I’m so bored with reading reviews that I personally believe give SL/Sheldrake far too much over-the-top accolades for the product I end up smelling. I respect several bloggers who have oodles more aroma-chemical and technical knowledge than I ever will or ever want to have and I enjoy reading their perspectives. But when I find the perfume community going completely gaga over every last inane, mysterious or vague statement from Serge Lutens himself, it simply makes me roll my eyes. Oh, puh-leez.

Serge Lutens Bas de Soie is not spectacular. But here’s the weird part, I think I’ve really fallen in love with it. Part of my initial boredom with Bas de Soie was that I expected much more emphasis on hyacinth, or at least the sort of hyacinth I can recognize, because I really love this note. I love hyacinth in Chamade, Grand Amour and Parfums MDCI Un Coeur en Mai. So, my expectations were initially crushed when I first sniffed Bas de Soie because this scent is only minimally about hyacinth. When I first sniffed Bas de Soie, my reaction was that it was Iris Silver Mist light. This isn’t the case, BdS isn’t anywhere near the cold, rooty, artistic weirdness of ISM, but it starts off very much ado about iris and therein lies the comparison. There is also a sort of hairspray quality in BdS, which you either learn to love or ignore due to its other positive attributes. When PerfumeShrine suggested that with the launch of BdS, Lutens was doing Chanel, she wasn’t exaggerating. Bas de Soie could easily be mistaken for a Chanel fragrance, in fact, there’s a strong similarity with Chanel 28 La Pausa. I also notice similarities with Hermes Hiris, Donna Karan Iris and Prada Infusion d’Iris. What is special about Bas de Soie is that I like it better than all of these irises I just mentioned. Let me be frank, I would never wear Iris Silver Mist; I respect it and like to give it an occasional sniff but it’s an artistic scent, not a functional one, and one I would never wear in public. But, because these are functional fragrances, I would wear Chanel 28 La Pausa, Hermes Hiris, Prada Infusion d’Iris and Donna Karan Iris. The main problem with these four other irises is that they are gone in 14 minutes. I like Bas de Soie better because it’s slightly more potent and there is the hyacinth aspect, giving it a stronger floralcy and more of a “just plain pretty personality.”

Others have suggested a strong similarity with Chanel No. 19, and I do see that but BdS is so linear, minimalist and sheer it doesn’t even seem in the same league. Chanel No. 19 is a complex and classic “perfumey” fragrance while BdS is so much more linear and simple, without any of the darker base notes of No. 19.

After many months I’ve realized Bas de Soie is a winner for me, but it’s the sort that crept up on me, slowly, over many wearings and many comparisons with others in the same genre. It doesn’t smell groundbreaking in the least, and it’s certainly a functional fragrance compared with an artistic scent such as Iris Silver Mist, but in the big wide world of iris/hyacinth type perfumes, I really like Bas de Soie.

Creating the below chronological list of Serge Lutens fragrances was very helpful for me. I realized that SL has created far more functional as opposed to artistic fragrances over the years, which actually, makes me feel a bit better. I feel better because it’s not like the brand is changing for the worse, it’s just doing what it has always done; occasionally appeasing perfume connoisseurs with unusual artistic fragrances while staying in business with the pretty functional fragrances for the mainstream consumer.

1992 Feminite de Bois (Shiseido)
1992 Bois de Violette
1992 Bois et Fruits
1992 Bois et Musc
1992 Bois Oriental

1993 Ambre Sultan
1993 Rose de Nuit
1994 Un Bois Sepia
1994 Iris Silver Mist
1994 Un Lys

1995 Fleurs d’Oranger
1995 La Myrrhe

1996 Cuir Mauresque
1996 Encens et Lavande

1997 Santal de Mysore

1998 Muscs Koublai Khan
1998 Rahat Loukhoum

1999 Tubereuse Criminelle

2000 A La Nuit
2000 Arabie
2000 Douce Amere
2000 Sa Majeste La Rose

2001 Chergui
2001 Datura Noir
2001 Santal Blanc

2002 Vetiver Oriental

2003 Clair de Musc
2003 Fumerie Turque
2003 Un Bois Vanille

2004 Chene
2004 Daim Blond
2004 Fleurs de Citronnier

2005 Borneo 1834
2005 Cedre
2005 Miel de Bois

2006 Chypre Rouge
2006 Gris Clair
2006 Mandarine Mandarin

2007 Louve
2007 Rousse
2007 Sarrasins

2008 El Attarine
2008 Five O’Clock au Gingembre
2008 Serge Noire

2009 Filles en Aiguilles
2009 Fourreau Noir
2009 Nuit de Cellophane

2010 L’eau Serge Lutens
2010 Bas de Soie
2010 Boxeuses

TWRT 7.16.10

This week's random thoughts ~

I love Prince. Purple Rain was among the first concerts I ever attended as a pre-teen. It was also one of my first R rated movies (along with Flash Dance) both of which I snuck into numerous times. I saw Purple Rain, the concert, with rivers of blue eyeliner and thick blue mascara streaming down my cheeks due to the adolescent hysteria of good seats, proximity to Prince, and my gawd, it was just so thrilling. But I’m thinking Prince must be batty with his latest thoughts on the internet. I mean, I know Prince lives in his own little "Prince World" but I thought he was a savvy business man of some sort.

I’m fixated on all the prairie dog colonies out here in NM. Photos to come. That's my little Girl Greta in the above pic. She'll be 8 this October.

The only TV I’m watching these days is True Blood and Hung. Hung is mostly unsatisfying, I mean, really, I want to SEE IT (oh, c’mon you know exactly what I mean by “it”). True Blood is back to its usual charms. With True Blood I always wish the episodes were 2 hours long, I hate for them to end. And what about that scene with Tara “doing” the vampire a few weeks back. Her eyes were rolling back in her head. I was all “I’ll have what she’s having” a la that scene from When Harry Met Sally.

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” Guess who said this? (Don’t look it up, just guess) I was surprised.

Upcoming perfumes I’m excited about: the new flanker for Hermes Eau des Merveilles called Claire des Merveilles and the new Shalimar with more focus on vanilla. Notice a trend here? I’m making my peace with vanilla. And also the new Etat Libre d’Orange called Sex Pistols. Sid & Nancy was another flick I watched at least a dozen times during high school. High School = the rebellious years, hence the attraction to these idiots, who for the life of me I can’t figure out why they were so interesting. They made only 1 album and their popularity was just a blip before Sid & Nancy’s deaths in their early 20’s. But Gary Oldman sure as heck did a bang up job as Sid.

Tauer’s new Carillon pour un Ange. Hmmm. Not sure I’ll be able to review this one in full. I think it just isn’t my thing. LoTV usually goes all air freshener on me unless it’s vintage Diorissimo, which in fairness is the polar opposite of what Tauer has done with Carillon, so there’s barely a reason to bring it up. Carillon is a dense, strongly green, mulit-facted floral. There’s some LoTV but just hints. I can see this being a love or hate scent. Now Orange Star, on the other hand, is gorgeous and I concur with everything The Non Blonde wrote about it. I’m coming to realize The Non Blonde and I might be scent twins.

Today I’m wearing Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Ylang & Vanille. This is pretty stuff. Pretty, uncomplicated and well done.

Ever notice how nobody ever mentions Mitsouko Fleur de Lotus?

So I had a perfume catastrophe last night. I was pulling out Micallef Hiver in order to wear it and write a review because I love this stuff when the bottle of Micallef Rose Aoud in front of it fell to the floor and smashed. It took me awhile to realize the bottle had smashed because I keep it in its box and I didn’t think much of its tumble; I figured it had managed unscathed. Well, when I saw the pool of perfume (think: crime scene pool of blood puddling around a body, I let out a yelp). Then I got all sulky wondering why I have such bad karma. Now I’m just peeved that half my house reeks of Rose Aoud. The bottle was 98% full and it leaked all over the floor.

I’m also not sure if I can write a review of Serge’s newest Bas de Soie. It’s just ok. Not much to say either positively or negatively. My love for all things Serge is quickly fading. My favorite fragrance from SL is Fleurs d’Oranger (among my top favorite perfumes period) which has now been reformulated. FdO was not massacred but it’s definitely NOT the unbelievably gorgeous and most stunning orange blossom on the market anymore. This reformulation coupled with Eau de Laundry Detergent and several blasé releases (Nuit de Cellophane, etc) have left me disenchanted and wondering if Lutens/Sheldrake have lost steam or perhaps are just doing what the corporate suits tell them to do. Most likely the latter.

Sandwich of the week: a breakfast sandwich. Scrambled egg whites on whole wheat toast with sliced tomato, mild green chilis draped across top and Monterey jack cheese. Cut into 4 triangles for easier eating. You truly can’t avoid the cultural phenomena of green chili in NM.



Have a fragrant weekend everyone!