tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34512964772237344292024-03-04T23:55:47.791-08:00The ScentimentalistConversations in Scent CultureThe Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-3129188124019195692011-09-11T12:27:00.000-07:002014-03-31T08:50:05.101-07:00Chanel Cuir de Russie: Skin Scent<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO4kvmOmIR8ICMYpnxm5b9-0LSs4zuhskFWvOqVx2FEhreP8C9OrGXE1rp4YO_SK38AACg9LaKuEb8mGuAdesY5Rtb6b923ALT3Ff5SlcxoYSj86NKP4vo7sayDhlLjhDhtCH9cdFq0vQ/s1600/H19_chanel_1949_cuir_de_russie.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO4kvmOmIR8ICMYpnxm5b9-0LSs4zuhskFWvOqVx2FEhreP8C9OrGXE1rp4YO_SK38AACg9LaKuEb8mGuAdesY5Rtb6b923ALT3Ff5SlcxoYSj86NKP4vo7sayDhlLjhDhtCH9cdFq0vQ/s320/H19_chanel_1949_cuir_de_russie.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651186260598751474" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 246px;" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Birthdays always present opportunities for indulgence, particularly when one’s predilections are scented. </span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After faithfully observing many long months of abstinence, owing to general impecuniosity and a bedroom groaning with bottles, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> recently conceded one coveted scent acquisition. Emboldened in part by Chanel’s supplying its Les Exclusifs in the new 75ml (alongside the usual 200ml) size, and by the egoistic acquisitiveness that can characterise celebrations of one’s birth, it was thus decreed that, on this special occasion, one scent just </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">had</span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to be had.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And so a slim and lovely bottle of </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cuir de Russie</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> entered the fold, taking its light and leathery place alongside its sisters, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">No. 5</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cristalle</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cuir de Russie</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is the cultish stuff of legend and much purple prose. Inducing descriptions of birch-tarred Cossack boots, dung, Slavic cheekbones and Twenties </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">garçonnes</span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, this floral leather inspires—even in its relatively timid EdT version—encomia that speak tremulously of its ‘fecal’ and ‘animalic’ qualities. Intriguingly, the </span><a href="http://www.chanel.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Chanel website</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> prefers to describe it as a ‘rich, woody Oriental with leather notes for an enveloping, warm, sensual presence’. Not on </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’s skin, it ain’t.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cuir de Russie</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (as it now exists) is surely the most polite and poetically </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">romantic</span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> of leathers: though spicily antiseptic on opening, its fierce but fleeting severity is quickly eclipsed by a soft, sweet, flowery middle. Almost imperceptibly, twinkling aldehydes transport us through a bower of jasmine and rose, as dusty violet oscillates above a dry bed of powdery iris, taking our nose from cold climes to warm as the scent’s balsamic bottom holds true. Though laying claim to a vanilla base note, this is mercifully indiscernible on my skin—in curious contrast, say, with Lancôme’s </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cuir</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, in which an uncited vanillic accord appears to cling grimly alongside the styrax.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bearing the one-time US distribution name ‘Russia Leather’, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cuir de Russie</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> was marketed to the non-European as Chanel’s ‘interpretation of the great outdoors … equally smart with heathery tweed or sequins on black’, and as a ‘fragrance with a dash of paradox’. The latter description, I feel, is germane: despite other wearers’ enthusiastic impressions of sweaty saddles and White Russian potency, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cuir de Russie</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—for this author—eschews both shit and unblushing sex. Less smoky and more coolly ‘blonde’ than </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tabac Blond</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, its is a restrained and essentially classical form that refuses to shout, but insists to be understood. A skin scent, it may be argued, in the numerous meanings of that term.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cuir de Russie</span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> was born to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> in late August, and as such has now been claimed as the ‘Virgo’ leather of that fragrance family.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Which is your favourite leather scent? Share your thoughts here, with </span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist.</span></span></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-19342143804507607612011-01-04T12:56:00.000-08:002011-01-05T02:56:40.554-08:00Ormonde Woman: Dark Forest<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/TSOLpJCFHGI/AAAAAAAAAM8/tPXC8IT9zrE/s1600/ormonde%2Bwoman.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/TSOLpJCFHGI/AAAAAAAAAM8/tPXC8IT9zrE/s400/ormonde%2Bwoman.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558439904020864098" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><br /></i></span></div><div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><i><span style="font-family: Georgia; ">The Scentimentalist</span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia; "> has set herself a New Year’s challenge, by starting 2011 with some unfinished business. For the first-foot to cross the scented threshold this New Year is a post started</span><span style="font-family: 'Garamond Gorgias'; ">—</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; ">and then abandoned</span><span style="font-family: 'Garamond Gorgias'; ">—</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; ">some seven months ago.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><span style="font-family:Georgia"></span></span>At that time I had in my clutches a very fine and desirable package: an <b><a href="http://www.ormondejayne.com/uk/discovery-set-perfume-samples.php">Ormonde Jayne Discovery Set</a></b> of twelve mini <i>eaux de parfum</i>, a tray of EdP his-and-hers minis of uncommon execution and quality. Covetously, I pored over its accompanying black-and-gold booklet, absorbing the notes and rare components of this assortment of fragrant soft centres. <b>Sampaquita</b>, <b>Frangipani</b>, <b>Osmanthus</b>, <b>Champaca</b> … these were scents that spelled romance, the lure of the tropics, the exotic.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><span class="Apple-style-span">Amidst these otherworldly florals reposed some great and opulent heavyweights: <b>Ta’if</b>, abundant with <i>Rosa damascena </i>from the shores of Saudi Arabia; golden frankincense-laced <b>Tolu</b>, named for a Peruvian tree resin; and the uncategorisable <b>Ormonde Woman</b>, which has for almost a decade been the signature of this luxury London perfumery.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/TSOKiCJoiEI/AAAAAAAAAMs/KySYkpOYsT4/s320/hemlock.jpg" /></span> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia">Indeed, it was the uncanny (and excellent) <b>Ormonde Woman</b> that truly flummoxed <i>The Scentimentalist</i>, and was the source of so many attempts to capture its curious landscape in writing. For, as I found myself asking on each application, <i>what <b>genre</b> of scent was this? </i>A chypre, an oriental, a gourmand? And, given its atypicality, <i>how on earth could I begin to describe it</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia">Inasmuch as a forest of trees is a spectacle too great to see, <b>Ormonde Woman </b>is a composition too elusive and complex to know. Its disparate notes, supplied in the aforementioned black-and-gold booklet, provide us with little with which to enhance our olfactory edification. Yes, one can readily discern its cradling cedar and amber, warmed by the aromatic oils of cardamom and coriander. My companion, perceiving flowers where I smell only the softest of woodlands and spices, declares a keen and lovely note of what she believes is ‘Parma violet’. When placed in combination, however, these make for a scent that is enigmatically, elegantly singular.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/TSOLbHN6xKI/AAAAAAAAAM0/4C9nE3G8CDU/s320/Mountain-Hemlock-Tsuga-Mertensiana.jpg" /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia">For <i>The Scentimentalist</i>,<b> Ormonde Woman</b> is the sweet grass, warm earth and spruce-y resin of a dark forest, captured by coniferous black hemlock absolute and the gentlest smudge of brown sugar. With a <i>timbre</i> that is, paradoxically, both tenebrous and luminescent, it is a scent that quite concordantly embraces both darkness and warmth. Finally, for the purposes of categorisation, I would perhaps concur most readily with <a href="http://www.perfumestheguide.com/Perfumes_The_A-Z_Guide_-_Luca_Turin_and_Tania_Sanchez/Home.html">Tania Sanchez</a>, who describes this ‘abstract woody perfume’ as a sophisticated ‘forest chypre’.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia">Like the labyrinthine forests of the collective imagination, <b>Ormonde Woman</b> presents a space that invites its wearers to <i>think</i>. And yet, even after seven months of concerted contemplation, I feel no closer to apprehending this elusive and enchanted scent. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia">Happy New Year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/TSOL7hOmL0I/AAAAAAAAANE/rREgpmliE5I/s200/sampler1-300x181.jpg" /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 16px; "> more, the shipping is complimentary </span></div>The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-2045652918130863482010-07-05T03:31:00.002-07:002012-08-21T14:54:12.791-07:00Oranges and Lemons at Penhaligon's<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;">Little comes close to citrus in the summer: tart lemon, bitter orange, lime so tangy and effervescent that you salivate just on smelling it. Combined with the lightest, whitest florals and a transparent trail of musk, citrus can brighten and render limpid even the heaviest of hot summer days.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As with so many, the eau de cologne is a </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Scentimentalist</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> summer staple. Last year, a bottle of Penhaligon’s aromatic </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Douro</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> took its place in refrigerated splendour alongside the mayonnaise, supplying freshness and citrus vigour with every leathery, bergamot blast.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This year, the English summer is set to be tempered by two newer offerings from Penhaligon’s: its luscious, lemon-bright </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Eau de Cologne</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and gorgeous, dusky </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Orange Blossom,</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> sampled recently from this British house’s expanding ‘Anthology’ series.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Strictly speaking, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Eau de Cologne</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is not a ‘new’ Penhaligon’s scent, given that it is an un-tweaked re-release of an archived 1927 classic. A gloriously pulpy and astringent, lemon-orange flesh-and-zest fest, it glazes the skin with the clean, lively sparkle of a sorbet, its gentle rosemary note dusting it down to the soft powder of a bonbon.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Devoid of basenotes, the </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Eau de Cologne </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">experience</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">is unabashedly hesperidic, bracing but brief, and this scent works hardest when sprayed directly onto fabric (or hairy chest)—though to do so is to lessen its intensely blood-cooling impact.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490375523039326642" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/TDG7cu5CMbI/AAAAAAAAAMA/jKcKVq0taws/s320/orange+blossom.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 320px;" /></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Orange Blossom</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, meanwhile, is the creative re-rendering of in-house nose Bertrand Duchaufour, who riffs here on Penhaligon’s original scent from 1976. Duchaufour, to my mind, works a minor perfumery miracle by enrobing the clear, stimulating potency of neroli oil with waxy indoles and a soothing, slightly gourmand syrup of spiced summer fruit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This is a honey bee guzzling at the heart of a </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">bigaradia </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">flower; a cardamom-laced Lebanese pudding steeped in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">maa’ al-zahr</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, cedar and sandalwood. For </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, perhaps the prettiest phase of this lovely summer fragrance is its floral middle, when jasmine, rose and tuberose entwine amidst a caress of the ripest peach.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Following swiftly on from last year’s fabulous </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://thescentimentalist.blogspot.com/2009/10/amorous-amaranthine-or-penhaligons-gets.html">Amaranthine</a></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, Penhaligon’</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">s latest project with Duchaufour is also unquestionably a triumph, and strikes a clever and whimsical balance between the classy florals for which this house is so renowned and daring departures into modern and even mildly </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">avant-garde</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> territory.</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I await Duchaufour’s next Penhaligon’s </span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">creation </span></span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">with bated breath.</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/TDG1MlPZ1nI/AAAAAAAAALo/OgWn4-uzP78/s320/neroli.jpg" /></span> </o:p></span></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-11277014127146600662010-04-17T08:30:00.000-07:002012-08-21T14:58:49.972-07:00Balenciaga Rumba: Mood Music <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/S8nVTUjCHCI/AAAAAAAAAKw/NwYUfTSOEqo/s320/rumba-balenciaga-1991.jpg" /><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Today, the heavens over Britain are laden with volcanic ash, and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is in a somewhat contentious emotional state. It is a truism that, on dark days like these, only a judiciously chosen scent can lift or transform one’s mood.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thus, after a couple of hours of grizzling (and hanging back in case the postman decided to drop me off something fragrant), I resolved this morning to confront my antagonists and raise my morale in one fell swoop.</span></span></div>
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<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I needed an </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">unexpected</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> scent; I needed to prove my indomitability. I wanted a scent that was ardent and fiery, pugnacious – </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">endangering</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, even. With unerring instinct, I knew exactly which vial to pluck from my samples box: possibly the most unrepentant of the loudest of the most heavy-hitting scents of the ’80s. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">‘Damn the world!’ I declared, belligerent. ‘Today, I am going to wear … </span></span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rumba</span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">!’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Balenciaga’s fervent, ferocious, untameable, terrible </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rumba</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">! A torrid monster confection of flowers, fruit, honey, woods and incense. A sweltering party night in Havana that yields, astonishingly, to the cool of an Eastern Orthodox church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">… And how it worked its rhythmic magic, and how my moods evolved in its wake, as the following scented schema sets out to demonstrate:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/S8nVhS02YRI/AAAAAAAAAK4/ONZfH70_Ytc/s320/rumba-history-800X800.jpg" /></span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mood One</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: In its first movement (if you will, for </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rumba</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is nothing less than ‘symphonic’), its colossal floral topnotes propel one instantly into an exercised, dynamic, euphoric mindset. This is the ‘Bring it on!’ (or, in </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’s case, ‘Back off, world!’) stage of the scent’s evolution.</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mood Two</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rumba</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> continues to stimulate via the slow seeping of its ripe, oozing-in-the-punnet soft fruit accords. Note that it intoxicates but avoids veering towards the intemperate; there are no indiscriminate pelvic thrusts here, rather, the assured grace of a sensually executed bolero. This is the confidently sustained, gently dramatic developmental stage.</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mood Three</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rumba</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> has now bloomed and warmed, as has the heart of its wearer, which is cradled in golden honey, tonka, vanilla, tobacco, leather and amber. It is at this stage that wearers begin to feels soothed, and increasingly unburdened.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mood Four</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: We are now left with the consoling remnants of </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rumba</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’s aromatic incense notes, which cling to the skin as tenaciously as </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">bukhour</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">clings to an Arab </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">thawb</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Here, wearers find themselves contemplative and peacefully reflective, their passions balanced and quelled, their peace of mind restored.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Back in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’s office, day has now turned to night and the blanket of ash remains suspended above. And, after eight hours’ wear (and counting), it is time to slip the vial of </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rumba</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> back into the samples box. Perhaps it will be picked out on some other dark, distant day, when life once more seems bleak and beleaguering and one’s soul calls for recalibration.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">It should be noted here that </span>Rumba</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is a fiendishly anti-social scent.* Yet, for </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, its therapeutic properties are beyond dispute. Latterly dropped by Balenciaga and now distributed by Ted Lapidus, this irrepressible ’80s one-off can be purchased on-line for a song.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">*</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The author took care to wear hers in the home, and with no third parties present.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-7903022707401787712010-04-09T14:31:00.001-07:002011-09-11T05:17:30.500-07:00You’ve Changed<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/S7-c6Bok9bI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/4rWKeSLVQpg/s1600/first+diamond+ring.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 233px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/S7-c6Bok9bI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/4rWKeSLVQpg/s320/first+diamond+ring.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458253794081306034" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A familiar scenario took place <i>chez The Scentimentalist </i>last night: a new bottle of scent was brandished</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">an oldie and, yes, a goodie. Its cap was tugged off roughly in nostalgic anticipation; expectant alveoli quieted and at the ready.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Spritz! And in for a sniff, for that first moment of nasal recall.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">oh!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that wasn’t </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">First</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">! At least, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">not the </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">First</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> I remembered</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. Since when did its voluminous jasmine note smell so grimly diluted, its narcissus accord like the daffodils going mouldy in the vase by my fireplace?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A vexing tale, but true. And one that, over the past few years, has afflicted </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">’s nostrils</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">with deadening frequency. For </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">First</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, like so many other landmark scents, has been ‘reformulated’</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">nay, adulterated, readers!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This phenomenon has been hastened by a plethora of factors, most of which have been dwelled on in more detail and with a good deal more erudition than here. Certainly, the <a href="http://www.ifraorg.org/">IFRA Code of Practice</a> with its attendant standards and regulations has proved a prime mover in this regard, notably in the run-up to 2010. Most galling have been its steely (but by no means new) restrictions on oakmoss; hence, perfume websites now abound with articles bewailing this injustice</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">in some cases, with very good cause.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In a great many instances, it is the harsh realities of ‘the bottom line’ that have been a driving force behind reformulation, with costly</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">and often diminishing</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">components being steadily replaced by infinitely cheaper, and yet very serviceable, synthetic substitutes.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The letter of the law has also prevailed, with many reconfigurations emerging from the banning of substances, natural or otherwise, including those identified as irritants or allergens, or as unsustainable or demanding environmental protection.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the case of vintage </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rive Gauche</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, it was arguably Tom Ford’s ego that was sufficient to tweak this perfume masterwork</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">but why, and for whom? Once unimpeachable and now unspeakable, afficionados are advised to check the detail on the packaging: if the name ‘Rive Gauche’ is flanked by two small, black squares, then you know you’ve got a bottle of the new</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">and less glorious</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">juice.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/S7-eSRMVlLI/AAAAAAAAAKo/uXbTA3vcKZU/s320/opium-yves-saint-laurent-linda.jpg" /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:small;">Sticking with YSL, perhaps the news that has created the most disquiet in perfume fora this year is the desecration (for it can only be described as such) of <b>Opium</b>. Presumably in a bid to deflate its late Seventies big-hair credentials, YSL has seen fit to render it altogether ‘lighter’, with a reported note (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">oh, the horror!) of ‘<i>rubber bands</i>’ …</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So where does all this leave the guileless and unlucky shopper, who</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">like </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;">seeks out a beloved scent that one has worn without interruption, or perhaps wore just a few years hitherto, or even several decades before, only to find that it is now little more than a simulacrum?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well, to start, it should be accepted that, invariably, there will be tears (cf. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and the new </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Diorissimo</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Joy</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No. 19</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">). This may, in certain instances, evolve into unbridled, impotent rage (cf. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and the newer </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tabac Blond</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Cristalle</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">). Meanwhile, in the very best-case scenario, mere confusion and hapless bewilderment will reign (cf. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ysatis</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Oscar de la Renta</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Habanita</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">).</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Or then, you could just go with it. Shit happens. And change</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—we frequently find</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;">—can be</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;"> scary.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Contrariwise, you could remind yourself that, for many great scents things are </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">not</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> all bad, and that there’s still some solid stuff to be had. To wit, though the beast that is </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bandit</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> has now changed more times than you’ve changed your own pantaloons, what exists on the shelves at this time is pretty tolerable, ditto </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mitsouko</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/S7-dMenLU4I/AAAAAAAAAKg/JdvLJ3mXwj0/s320/bandit+extrait.jpg" /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And then, of course, there’s one final suggestion (though you may, like </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, end up living in perfumed penury): get your ass quick sticks onto ebay and snap up every old-formulation bottle IN EXISTENCE!</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What are your reformulation woes? Share them here, with The Scentimentalist.</span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">And thanks to Michael Fowler's mummy (once, but sadly no longer, a devoted wearer of <b>Opium</b>) for inspiring this post.</span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div>The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-74640092327089562192010-03-07T09:49:00.000-08:002012-08-21T14:58:28.464-07:00Balmain Vent Vert: Green Goddess<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-eq9o3cCnsT9EXhOuei4720g9JlLUEeuLEnZfrR5hdIxqDennV2vu3fDnqryCo_tPTK5iSlMzIqIDcizPKeqj6fQUl3Jwau83YD8l-pczAvAsjxMxk96HOF08pJC_WgRmR9S1f-YUsc/s1600-h/balmain_1952_vent_vert_gruau.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445951496286924098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-eq9o3cCnsT9EXhOuei4720g9JlLUEeuLEnZfrR5hdIxqDennV2vu3fDnqryCo_tPTK5iSlMzIqIDcizPKeqj6fQUl3Jwau83YD8l-pczAvAsjxMxk96HOF08pJC_WgRmR9S1f-YUsc/s320/balmain_1952_vent_vert_gruau.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 233px;" /></a>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">It’s been a brutal, long winter here in Northern Europe. But, this week, one word has been on everybody’s lips: <i>Spring</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Snowdrops hang their heads in modest clusters around the tree trunks; egg-yolk and violet croci point their glossy petals skywards, like so many stubby paint brushes dunked in the jolliest paint.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">And, once again, the world is hinting at the appearance of an abundance of gorgeous <i>green</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Restless as a willow in a windstorm, <i>The Scentimentalist</i> has been dabbing at her most beloved of verduous scents: Balmain’s achingly tender and complex <b>Vent Vert</b>, created in 1947 by the incomparable Germaine Cellier. And what a noteworthy year for perfume that was, birthing alongside <b>Vent Vert</b> the estimable (and similarly green) <b>Miss Dior</b>, Caron’s <b>Farnesiana</b> and Balenciaga’s <b>Le Dix</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">I speak here of the vintage formulation of <b>Vent Vert</b> </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">‒ </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">in the aromatic extrait form, no less </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">‒ </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">a goodly splash of which currently nestles in the crook of my left elbow, still exuding a supple, emerald-green sillage some five hours after its application.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/S5Ppl9UW6NI/AAAAAAAAAKI/0zNwuyRhE_c/s1600-h/galbanum-wiki.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445953212745443538" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/S5Ppl9UW6NI/AAAAAAAAAKI/0zNwuyRhE_c/s320/galbanum-wiki.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 263px;" /></a> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">The original <b>Vent Vert</b> is a dusky green paean to the Middle Eastern resin galbanum, and reportedly boasts a mammoth 8 per cent of this balsamic gum in its formula, serving to impart a mildly savoury, lightly musky accord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">And, as this perfume’s poetic appellation suggests, this is possibly the <i>greenest</i> <i>green</i> a scent could ever be: it is bruised foliage and forest floors, melded with coarsely snapped stems, oozing sap and the darkest chlorophyll. It is styrax shrubs and velvety moss, vetiver grass and the tender underside of newly stripped bark.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">And from beneath this foliate canopy scented sprigs peek shyly out, most beautiful being the graceful, scented bells of springtime muguet, pungent hyacinth and the sweetest, most indolic narcissi.
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Intriguingly, as the topnotes of vintage <b>Vent Vert</b> dry down, the faintest aroma of lemongrass and coriander leaf emerges. This is surely plant life in perfume form at its very dreamiest and most inventive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">As is widely known, newer formulations of <b>Vent Vert</b> are different species entirely. While I have never smelled Calice Becker’s (purportedly very good) ‘middle’ version, I do possess a mini of Nathalie Feisthauer’s 1999 formula. Roundly maligned by so many (among them Luca Turin), I nonetheless find a great deal left to enjoy in this chartreuse concoction: it is altogether fresher, louder and brighter – if somewhat ‘pissy’ at an early juncture in its development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Hence, it is to vintage <b>Vent Vert</b> that we must turn to find green fragrance at its greatest and most inspirational. And so, to close, with the words of Federico Garcia Lorca:</span></div>
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<span class="body" style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">‘Green, how I want you green. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="body" style="font-size: 85%;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Green wind</span></i></span><span class="body" style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="body" style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Green branches.’</span></span></div>
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<span class="body"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The Scentimentalist thanks Frances Gapper for the gift of the vintage Vent Vert, and Bonkers About Perfume for supplying the Feisthauer mini.</span></span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-6649407764340847892010-02-20T11:41:00.000-08:002012-08-21T14:50:58.700-07:00Alexander McQueen Kingdom: An Unexpected Elegy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist regrets to announce an unforeseen change to her schedule:</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I’d been gearing up to eulogise Balmain’s vintage </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vent Vert </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">this week, until my chance sighting of the announcement of the death of British fashion designer, Lee ‘Alexander’ McQueen.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Responses to McQueen’s suicide were as stunned as they were distraught: his was, after all, an isolated and far too premature end, inflected by his own crushing experience of bereavement and loss. In the obituaries that followed for this </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">‘</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">hooligan</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> of haute couture, his impulse to rebellion</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> was rightfully lauded and vaunted, as were the singularity and sheer inimitability of his fashion aesthetic.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Little mentioned, however, were the two women’s perfumes in McQueen’s portfolio (</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kingdom</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, 2003 and </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My Queen</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, 2005), both launched following the acquisition of the McQueen brand by the Gucci Group in 2000. Neither had sold in especially enormous quantities, and both had been discontinued some time before the designer’s death. And yet it is his </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kingdom </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">that constitutes the subject of this unexpected elegy.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Without question, </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kingdom </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">is a scent that polarises opinion like few I have ever encountered, the heightened reactions it generates appearing to stem from its conflation of (the quintessentially McQueen themes of) subversion, sex and death.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For its loyal admirers, it is a high-concept, Gothic, olfactory abstraction, a heady, floral oriental of unstinting sensuality. For a great many among this number, it is exquisitely and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">affirmatively</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> obscene.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For its detractors, on the other hand, </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kingdom </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">is all repugnant animality: foetid roses and festering body odour, clouded by sickly associations of spicy foods and skank. As one contributor to a perfume site notes with disgust: ‘[Kingdom is the] unwashed body parts of the female anatomy or the armpits of an aging whore.’</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The culprit note in </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kingdom </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">is that highly pungent, rogue spice cumin, its generous deployment of which must rank as one of the most unapologetic in perfume history. Hence the numerous cited complaints by wearers of smelling strongly of ‘curry’ and ‘sweaty crevices’.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yet it was precisely the predominance of this startling cumin note that had burned bright in </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’s mind, just a short half-hour before reading the sad news of McQueen’s demise. Having just grappled with an over-ripe bottle of Dior’s </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dolce Vita</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> – the contents of which had flummoxingly, and unusually, smelt of </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">cumin </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">– the dreadful memory of a </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kingdom</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-related incident re-appeared:</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On the occasion of a birthday party one summer, I had disgraced myself before a woman novelist of some renown. Amongst her gifts was a coffret of her signature scent, </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kingdom</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, which she was sniffing before her guests with no little gusto and admiration.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Excited by the boldness of her </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">perfume choice, and misjudging her awareness of its scandalous associations, I seized her wrist and inhaled an appreciative lungful. At this, I declared with a loud and coarse exuberance:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">‘Fab!!! It smells just like [</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">insert indelicate name for a woman’s genitalia here</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">]!’</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The assembled guests fell quiet, and I have neither been spoken to nor looked at in the eye by said novelist since.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So, while </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> may never elect to wear McQueen’s </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kingdom</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, and cannot even be said to find it especially alluring, she nonetheless thanks the late Alexander McQueen for gifting the world a scent of such contention and notoriety. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A scent which, in the manner of the designer who gave name to it, sees fit always to assault the senses and provoke the complacent and the conventional.</span></span></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-81417320015645821992010-01-17T15:10:00.000-08:002012-08-21T14:57:59.216-07:00Halston Couture: Le Chypre, C’est Chic <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One night, at a disco on the outskirts of </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’Frisco, I was cruising with my favourite gang ... </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It’s the opening line to </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">He’s The Greatest Dancer</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, the 1979 anthem by Sister Sledge, backed and produced by pioneering disco outfit, Chic. A squelchy-bassed eulogy to a ‘champion of dance whose moves will put you in a trance’, to an unnamed ‘crème de la crème’ of the dance floor, dressed – unforgettably – in Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci.</span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> has always regretted being born too late for disco, and has sought determinedly (and successfully) to make up for this ever since. Much of her adolescence (from the mid-to-late 1980s) was spent gyrating beneath glitter balls and frugging to Donna Summer and Sylvester. And, on reflection, little in this scenario has evolved even to this day.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yet, in spite of relishing the ‘disco sound’ of at least a decade earlier, when it came to wearing perfume </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> of the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ʾ</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">80s was resolutely of her era: not for her the pull of </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Charlie</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rive Gauche</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> or </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Charles of the Ritz</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Rather, she – like most of her sheep-like peers – was flirting timorously with </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Paris</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Poison</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ysatis</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, to be succeeded finally by </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Coco</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and Calvin Klein’s </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Obsession</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Little did she know that, in as late as 1988, two bodacious (and borderline anachronistic) chypres were sashaying through the dry ice and onto the perfume scene: Estee Lauder’s </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Knowing</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> – which, typically, came in with a multinational bang – and Halston’s gloriously louche chypre throwback, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Couture</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, which – on British shores at least – scarcely registered a whimper.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A chance encounter two years ago with a 4ml vial of the latter transported </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, for the first time, to an olfactory Studio 54. This – </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">so much more</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> than Halston’s wildly successful 1975 eponymous scent – appeared to conjure up the glamour and sleek chic of the Halston epoch.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">With its amber-tempered patchouli and its languorous mossy base, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Couture</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is the very Ultrasuede of chypres; it is Bianca Jagger, boldly astride a white horse. A scent that drapes the skin then clings </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ʾ</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">til dawn, it is iconically enrobed in its Elsa Peretti bottle, half funky sterling silver and half round-hipped, frosted glass, and with its infamous angular neck that proved such a headache for its manufacturers.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The irony, of course, is that </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Couture</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> was created some four years </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">after</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Halston had been fired from his own company (his already disordered directorship was compounded by drug addiction). Hence, this scent is a strange, but fabulous, pastiche of a cultural moment when the jet-set and Beautiful People swayed in syncopated glitziness and descended into irreversible, hedonistic decline.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Given that this scent has been discontinued for many years now, hardcore fans of chypres should snap </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Couture</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> up wherever they may find it. Mercifully, it still appears on the occasional discounter's website and is rarely overpriced. Seductive and sophisticated beyond the capacity of most contemporary perfumes, what is certain to </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is that, as with Sister Sledge's 'Greatest Dancer', when in Halston </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Couture</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, you’ll </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">never </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">leave the disco alone</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What perfume did you wear to the disco? Share your memories here with </span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Scentimentalist</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><br />
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-91080431031449599792010-01-02T14:09:00.000-08:002011-01-03T06:54:25.530-08:00Gingerism?<span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_EljfIZtI/AAAAAAAAAHI/9iVeYBUmd2M/s1600-h/lucilleball.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_EljfIZtI/AAAAAAAAAHI/9iVeYBUmd2M/s320/lucilleball.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422268625837385426" border="0" /></a>
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<br /></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">In the world of fashion (and other) magazines, there exists a phenomenon known as the ‘Anita Loos Effect’. Ms Loos, a rapier-witted screenwriter of no little style and beauty, is most famed for having observed that <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes </i>(though, as she pungently adds, they prefer to marry brunettes). Thus, the ‘effect’ for which Ms Loos is named refers to the media’s privileging of blonde models, since to do so, we are told, is a guarantor of maximum sales.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Advertisements for perfumes appear to adhere to a similar principle: Caucasian blondes undisputedly predominate, though brunettes and the raven-haired make their presence felt, presenting a ‘smouldering’, ‘dusky</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">’,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "> ‘exotic’ counterpoint. Black and Asian models are predictably few in number – woefully so, in fact, given the global scope of the fragrance market.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_IcB_v0wI/AAAAAAAAAIA/VjP4PvZPXc4/s1600-h/rive+gauche+bow.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 122px; height: 160px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_IcB_v0wI/AAAAAAAAAIA/VjP4PvZPXc4/s320/rive+gauche+bow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422272860275069698" border="0" /></a></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">But where, I find myself asking, are the redheads in all of this? Are they the perfume industry’s last visible minority? Is this a flagrant case of ‘gingerism’?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Admittedly, mine may represent a somewhat Northern European concern: after all, redheads are said to make up just two to four per cent of the human population (a percentage that is, nonetheless, visibly higher here in Britain, in Ireland and Scandinavia). But this statistic relates to that rarity that is the <i>natural</i> <i>born</i> <i>redhead</i>, overlooking the fact that humans of multiple cultures and civilisations have long elected to redden their tresses, from the use of henna and other compounds by the peoples of ancient Egypt to the many millions who use home-dye kits from their local pharmacy.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Indeed, could not the fact that copper locks are so very sought-after and prized not be a case for placing redheads at the <i>forefront</i> of fragrance fantasy?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_G2cfTHGI/AAAAAAAAAH4/iViuWcU9SKE/s1600-h/jean+harlow.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 217px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_G2cfTHGI/AAAAAAAAAH4/iViuWcU9SKE/s320/jean+harlow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422271115040070754" border="0" /></a></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal" face="arial"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size:85%;">Did not Hollywood, in its golden age, champion many a redheaded siren? Consider the flame-haired (if assisted) glamour of the undulant Rita Hayworth, the disarming, rusty waves of the wayward Susan Hayward … and the iconic, bouffant vividness of the perky Lucille Ball. Even Anita Loos herself wrote <i>The Red-Headed Woman </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">screenplay </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">(1932), a vehicle for an appositely russet-wigged Jean Harlow, who played a dastardly, red-haired home-wrecker </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">hussy</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">For such is the ambivalent flipside of Western perceptions of the fabled redhead: for every Titian-haired, too-hot-to-handle glamourpuss there is a ‘carrot-topped’, tomboyish, forked-tongued firebrand. For every Boticelli’s Venus there is an antithetical Biblical Lilith; behind every Rita or Susan lurks a Fergie or Cilla. Thus, with the redhead, we find </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">a cartoonish </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">jarring of the sensual against the asexual, of the combustible against the abominable.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">As with any minority, it may be argued that redheads are too numerous to be ignored and too rare to be accepted. Thus, the mythologising – and demonising – of redheads is all too commonplace, though one may discern a tinge of awe in some pronouncements on this genus. Can Mark Twain’s declaration that ‘redheads are descended from cats’ not be interpreted as some form of panegyric; likewise Colette’s allusion to the redhead’s ‘feral, civet-like smell’?</span>
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">More than once have I heard it mentioned (albeit with <i>no </i>substantiating evidence) that, due to ‘a lack of oil in their skin’, redheads in fact smell ‘just like babies’, and are to this end employed by companies for the testing of perfumed products.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">(A comment as to the veracity of this ‘fact’ would be highly welcome.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <span><a style="font-family: arial; font-size: 85%; " onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_Ff_8YjpI/AAAAAAAAAHY/haI-7FYgWlU/s1600-h/TN_Classique_2004.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 191px; height: 256px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_Ff_8YjpI/AAAAAAAAAHY/haI-7FYgWlU/s320/TN_Classique_2004.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422269629908684434" border="0" /></a>
<br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">To consider the history of redheads in the marketing of Western fragrance, an extremely rudimentary survey reveals a handful of iconic examples. First is Jean Patou’s </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;">Adieu Sagesse</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> (1925), a clove-laden floral that was created as part of the designer’s ‘Love Trilogy’ of scents, with the redheaded lady wearer at the heart of its conceptualisation. Second are those pale, enigmatic, and ‘quirky’ redheads that have fronted high-profile scent campaigns, such as Karen Elson for Gaultier’s </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;">Classique </span><span style="font-size:85%;">(1993) and Lily Cole for </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Moschino's </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;">I Love Love</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> (2005).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><b><span></span></b></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_FsZGFfwI/AAAAAAAAAHg/lzolfPhGuG0/s1600-h/i+love+love+moschino.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 278px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_FsZGFfwI/AAAAAAAAAHg/lzolfPhGuG0/s320/i+love+love+moschino.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422269842818694914" border="0" /></a></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-family: arial;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Last, and most compelling, is the glorious parade of redheads who, for almost forty years now, have represented Yves Saint Laurent’s modern classic, </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;">Rive Gauche</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> (1971). A sassy, energetic, irreverent blast of aldehydes, the chic and audaciously sharp </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;">Rive Gauche</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> was arguably the first scent to attempt to bottle the dynamism of ’70s feminism. How apt that YSL should opt for an exemplar of ‘unconventional’ </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">beauty </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">to front a scent that, like the socio-political movement it emblemised, sought to shatter all pre-conceptions of what was ‘normative’ and desirable.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_GCYPE_rI/AAAAAAAAAHw/pQ2Z9UgDe1g/s1600-h/rive+gauche+scarf.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 187px; height: 256px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Sz_GCYPE_rI/AAAAAAAAAHw/pQ2Z9UgDe1g/s320/rive+gauche+scarf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422270220545097394" border="0" /></a>
<br /></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-family: arial;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Who are your favourite redheads from the annals of modern perfumery? Share them here with </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;">The Scentimentalist</span><span style="font-size:85%;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">This column is dedicated to two superlative redheads. To </span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-style: italic;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">my Mum </span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-style: italic;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style=";font-family:";font-size:85%;">– </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">happy birthday. And to Miss Helen Lawson</span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-style: italic;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">, with my sincere condolences.</span><span style="font-size:85%;">
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<br /></span>The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-74109051823630857952009-10-31T14:06:00.000-07:002012-08-21T14:57:14.625-07:00Piguet / Rochas: Butch / Femme<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Paris, 1944.
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">A city on the eve of liberation from occupation. Éluard’s <i>The</i> <i>German</i> <i>Rendezvous</i>, Sartre’s <i>No</i> <i>Exit</i> at the Vieux-Colombier. The launch of two scents that remain colossi of twentieth-century perfumery: Piguet’s brutal, androgynous <b>Bandit</b> and Rochas’s voluptuous, ‘womanly’ <b>Femme</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Despite sharing the same birth year and arising out of the same cultural and socio-political milieu, could two scents ever be less akin in their take on the ‘feminine’ fragrance and how women might present themselves through smell?
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">On first sight, certainly, we find little commonality: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bandit </span>is a stark dominatrix of a scent, asserting itself with a unrepentant blast of galbanum then easing itself austerely into a dark, leather-and-tobacco base. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Femme</span>, meanwhile, is brimful of over-ripe fruit: the tenderest peaches and plums macerated with the fleshiest flowers, a heavy sigh of sandalwood and amber reposing beneath. The former is bitter, blunt and severe, the latter yielding, lactonic and round.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bandit</span>, incidentally, was created by a woman (Germaine Cellier). <span style="font-weight: bold;">Femme </span>– as you may have guessed – was created by a man (Edmond Roudnitska).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">But here, to my mind at least, is where the binarism becomes blurred: in generic terms these are both breathtaking chypres, sharing compositional elements such as patchouli, oakmoss and musk. Each divides opinion and neither scent is ‘easy’ to wear (though vintage <span style="font-weight: bold;">Femme</span>, I understand, is more user-friendly than its current incarnation). And lastly, to put it coarsely, each scent is ineffably ‘dirty’, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bandit </span>with its edgy S&M associations and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Femme </span>with its full-bodied potency and sensuality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">For <span style="font-style: italic;">The Scentimentalist</span>, the interest of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bandit </span>and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Femme </span>lies in the new possibilities each presents for women’s gender performance via the olfactory. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bandit </span>– then, as now – poses a real and credible challenge to traditional expectations of how a woman ‘should’ smell. In creating a scent replete with what Balzac describes in <i>La Cousine Bette</i> as ‘des qualités d’homme’, Cellier (who, we are told, was lesbian) offers both women – and men – the chance to ‘crossdress’ with perfume. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">No less startlingly, Roudnitska’s overtly sexual (but <i>never</i> vulgar) <span style="font-weight: bold;">Femme </span>seizes on the spirit of independence enjoyed by French women during the war years, and presents a perfumed persona of womanly glamour, to be bought by the bottle and enjoyed for oneself as much as for others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">After numerous, somewhat uneven, re-orchestrations, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bandit </span>is now about as true to its original formula as it can be. To smell this scent 65 years after its creation, one is mindful of how no contemporary mainstream perfume house would dare to make anything as bold and gender-bending. <span style="font-weight: bold;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Femme</span>, meanwhile, has altogether transitioned: in 1989 Olivier Cresp was commissioned to create a ‘new’ <span style="font-weight: bold;">Femme </span>for Rochas. This version, controversially for some, may be distinguished from Roudnitska’s by a prominent note of cumin. Ironically, this ‘womanly’ scent <i>par excellence</i> now smells irretrievably more ‘manly’ as a consequence.</span></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-35834927998764121192009-10-16T10:01:00.000-07:002009-10-18T05:55:18.376-07:00Amorous Amaranthine (or Penhaligon’s Gets Passionate)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Stio2A3RvPI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/26r54w4Bm4M/s1600-h/lovely+bottle.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Stio2A3RvPI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/26r54w4Bm4M/s320/lovely+bottle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393246199674420466" border="0" /></a>
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">As we know, these are financially testing times. Hence, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Scentimentalist</span> was compelled to seek additional employment, if only to be able to sustain her perfume habit. Though extra capital has facilitated some new internet acquisitions (a vintage Balenciaga <span style="font-weight: bold;">La Fuite des Heures</span>, a dubiously cheap Patou <span style="font-weight: bold;">1000 </span>and an Errol Flynn-esque Rochas <span style="font-weight: bold;">Moustache</span>), the downside of being wedded to the workstation is clear: one has less time for sniffing around the world of perfume outdoors.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Thus it was with dismay that my long-anticipated attendance at a perfume nerds’ meet-up was cancelled this August. As I coached Chinese nanotechnologists in the conventions of the academic essay, my pals from a <a href="http://www.basenotes.net/">world-renowned perfume forum</a> were cavorting aro</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">und the emporia of London, quaffing champagne, snagging ‘exclusives’ and bagging various scented freebies.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">My crony, floriental girl, supplied a regular SMS chronicle: <span style="font-style: italic;">Am early and in Starbucks!</span> / <span style="font-style: italic;">So nice to meet everyone in person!</span>
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<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">I was following her pronouncements with a mildly jaundiced eye, when one improbable text message shrieked out at me: <span style="font-style: italic;">OMG! Just smelled new Penhaligon’s. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Amaranthine</span>. Can only be described as ****able!</span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">***able?! Penhaligon’s? Oh-so-English purveyors of genteel soliflores and high-toned gentlemen’s colognes?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-style: italic;">****able?!?!</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">I remained quietly sceptical. Though, on reflection, I recalled a Penhaligon’s sales assistant tipping me off about <span style="font-weight: bold;">Amaranthine</span>: a ‘corrupted floral oriental’, ‘a creamy carnation’, a Bertrand Duchaufour creation.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Just two days before <span style="font-weight: bold;">Amaranthine</span>’s launch on 12 October, floriental girl sent me a sample in the post. She’d attended a party a few days earlier, and had spent the evening, starstruck, in the company of Duchaufour, head perfumer at L’Artisan. They’d chatted in French, he’d autographed her bottle in silver, they’d confided a mutual disaffection with certain accords. She was clearly in love, with both the scent and with its nose.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">I approached the sample vial with a prurient fascination.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/StipYo5gZSI/AAAAAAAAAFY/YHQ4WaqRFgI/s1600-h/amaranthus+music.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 233px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/StipYo5gZSI/AAAAAAAAAFY/YHQ4WaqRFgI/s320/amaranthus+music.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393246794536740130" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">
<br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Amaranthine </span>evokes the deep purple-red of the amaranthus, the eternally exquisite and never-fading flower.<span style=""> </span>Penhaligon’s announces it as a ‘daring’ new scent, and for a heritage house with a fairly traditional luxury profile, it represents an indubitable shift towards modern relevance and sensuality, while never relinquishing the brand’s refinement or preoccupation with taste.
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<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Though presenting a deferential continuum with Penhaligon’s legacy of feminine florals, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Amaranthine </span>breaks with the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bluebell</span>s<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Elizabethan Rose</span>s of yore to present a complex, sophisticated floriental that is at turns blooming (carnation, rose, orange flower), unchaste (ylang ylang, jasmine, musk, sandalwood) and edible (cardamom, coriander seed, vanilla, condensed milk, tonka bean absolute).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Though by no means as ostensibly avant-garde as some of Duchaufour’s compositions (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Timbuktu </span>and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dzonghka </span>for L’Artisan spring most readily to mind), there is nonetheless something of this great nose’s signature at work here – a damp, sweet, hay-like crotchiness that nuzzles tenderly beneath the floral notes, swathed in the ambrosial comfort of lashings of cream with added spice.
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<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Stip1Lbd75I/AAAAAAAAAFg/Z3c5bGNnLgw/s1600-h/bottle+and+box.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 307px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Stip1Lbd75I/AAAAAAAAAFg/Z3c5bGNnLgw/s320/bottle+and+box.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393247284842327954" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">With its superlative longevity and delectable, come-hither sillage, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Amaranthine </span>– like its namesake – is truly a beauty that does not fade.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-20291882012852326392009-10-04T11:42:00.000-07:002011-01-05T16:17:36.933-08:00Bum Notes<span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Ssjtb5y_unI/AAAAAAAAAFA/5YH9yV5GDso/s1600-h/darling.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 282px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Ssjtb5y_unI/AAAAAAAAAFA/5YH9yV5GDso/s320/darling.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388818017775762034" border="0" /></a>
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<br /></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-family: georgia;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span>I was in Boots the Chemist the other day, gazing wryly at <span style="font-style: italic;">yet another</span> vessel of lychee-rose-vanilla-amber pink stuff. And then a ghastly realisation took hold:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">I was cradling Kylie Minogue’s behind.</span>
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Right there, in the store. Her bum … her <i>backside</i>. No word of a lie</span><span style="font-size:85%;">. Two buttocks. And a crack!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">And – most uncomfortable of all – <span style="font-style: italic;">it smelled terrible!</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Of course, I refer here to Kylie’s first ‘celebuscent’, <b>Darling</b>, to all intents and purposes a sweet and innocuous fruity floral. So why package such princessy contents in a glass posterior with a spray pump? Was this some signifier, seized upon in the course of a fragrance focus group?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Q: <i>With what do you associate Australian pop star and sex kitten, Kylie Minogue? <o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">A: <i>Her arse! We want to be able to hold and smell her arse!</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">For me, the combination of ‘fruity chypre’ and celebrity cheeks is faintly incongruent though, in fairness, Ms Minogue is not the first with such arse-y allusions. Some four years prior to the appearance of <b>Darling</b> (2006), plumply rumped movie star Jennifer Lopez brought out her heavyweight <b>Glow</b>, resplendent in an appositely pear-shaped frosted bottle. (As she once confidently trumpetted: ‘Guys dig my curves!’)
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SsjtH8pnO4I/AAAAAAAAAE4/mDrD6DF6vV8/s1600-h/jloglow.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SsjtH8pnO4I/AAAAAAAAAE4/mDrD6DF6vV8/s320/jloglow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388817674944330626" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">While JLo’s torso-shaped flacon is arguably more obliquitous than Ms Minogue’s, the former’s cheerful addition of a ‘bling style’ pendant and chain means that neither star’s bottle truly triumphs in the taste stakes.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">For my money, the finest example of a tush as a receptacle for eau de toilette is Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1937 scent, <b>Zut</b>. Launched in the same year as her bodacious <b>Shocking</b>, famed as much for its raunchy signature as its collectable ‘Mae West’ torso-shaped bottle, <b>Zut</b> supplies the crucial lower half of the female anatomy. Its bottle consists in an abdomen and a pair of shapely legs, with a fallen skirt in folds around the torso-less figure’s glass feet. Hilariously kitsch and even bordering on the grotesque, this little lady maintains her modesty in a voluminous pair of drawers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Ssjtms6mngI/AAAAAAAAAFI/8KZ-G5KkYq4/s1600-h/zut.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/Ssjtms6mngI/AAAAAAAAAFI/8KZ-G5KkYq4/s320/zut.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388818203296570882" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Which is more than can be said for some appearances by Ms Minogue!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-31524505231652053932009-09-15T14:44:00.000-07:002011-01-05T16:16:21.808-08:00Celebuscents: The Z-List<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SrAMD_eIxHI/AAAAAAAAAEg/9gy6_Jnm9gw/s1600-h/Devil+Woman+Perfume+2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 258px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SrAMD_eIxHI/AAAAAAAAAEg/9gy6_Jnm9gw/s320/Devil+Woman+Perfume+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381814817424721010" border="0" /></a>
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">’Fess up.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Who here wears <b>Donald Trump the Fragrance</b>? Or <b>Sexy Thoughts</b> by Paula Abdul? Or Julio Iglesias’s <b>Only Crazy</b>?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Well, someone does, for this stuff is shifting units. Perhaps not in the league of JLo’s (radioactive) <b>Glow</b>, and certainly not on the scale of Britney’s (cupcake nemesis) <b>Fantasy</b>, but right now, somebody, somewhere in this universe, is dabbing a dot of <b>Danielle</b> by Danielle Steele in the crook of her elbows.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Celebrity endorsements are nothing new in the world of fragrance, nor is the phenomenon of celebrity as scent muse. Givenchy created <b>L’Interdit</b>, we know, for Audrey Hepburn, while Creed created <b>Fleurissimo</b> for bride-to-be Grace Kelly.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Even in the Eighties, stars were readily putting their names to scents, to wit, Joan Collins’s <b>Spectacular</b> (she was also the muse for Revlon’s <b>Scoundrel</b>), and Catherine Deneuve’s coolly elegant chypre, <b>Deneuve. </b>For<b> </b><i>The<b> </b>Scentimentalist</i><b>, </b>affection<b> </b>for the so-called celebuscents of this decade must be reserved for pop starlet Debbie Gibson’s <b>Electric</b> <b>Youth</b>, the pink prototype for all successive teenybopper fragrances, in a bottle hosting an electric (okay, make that <i>plastic</i>) ‘coil’. Punk rock!</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SrAMazWj52I/AAAAAAAAAEo/IVN4SXLmpzk/s1600-h/electric+youth.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 197px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SrAMazWj52I/AAAAAAAAAEo/IVN4SXLmpzk/s320/electric+youth.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381815209308710754" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">As to the wearers of celebuscents, it is known that the 16-to-28 demographic predominates, hence the preponderance of generic fruity florals in this category, or scents that are ‘inoffensive’, ‘broad in appeal’ and, in short, <i>safe</i>. No matter how ‘avant-garde’ (Gwen Stefani?) or edgy (Kate Moss?) the star, no celebrity’s scented creation would ever dare to be truly audacious. Why?
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;">It wouldn’t sell</span></i><span style="font-family:Georgia;">.
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The result is an alarming homogeneity amongst such fragrances: who can really discern one cherry-jam Katie Price juice from the next, or one Paris Hilton candyfloss confection from another?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">For the more mature (though not always more discerning) celebrity lover, Liz Taylor’s spangly fragrance flotilla supplies an array of <i>less</i>-<i>really</i>-<i>is</i>-<i>more</i> olfactory ‘jewels’. Her <b>White Diamonds</b>, launched in 1991, remains one of the best-selling celebrity scents to date. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">In Britain – and possibly even beyond – there is a cluster of fragrant fogies wishing to smell of the latest Cliff Richard (choose from <b>Miss You Nights</b>, <b>Devil Woman</b> and <b>Summer Holiday!</b>), while Celine Dion, global empress of the power ballad, has an extraordinary <i>twelve</i> fragrant offerings to her name. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">On a slightly less stellar note, one can only speculate as to the intended demographic for <b style="">Svetlana’s Breath</b>, a malodorous-sounding elixir that was named for the daughter of Stalin. (Should any reader have first-hand experience of this scent, <i>The Scentimentalist</i> would love to hear from you!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">But what of the ineffably awful or unutterably uncool celebrity scent, the sort that winds up, unloved and abandoned, collecting dust in your local pound store? The sort of lazily executed, tawdrily packaged bilge that never quite made it to the lucrative ranks of the ‘prestige market’? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SrAMtUg5ueI/AAAAAAAAAEw/09saZwLY6-I/s1600-h/chanelle+hayes+mwah.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SrAMtUg5ueI/AAAAAAAAAEw/09saZwLY6-I/s320/chanelle+hayes+mwah.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381815527448099298" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Two examples that spring to <i>The Scentimentalist</i>’s mind are Kerry Katona’s <b>Outrageous!</b> and Chanelle Hayes’s <b>Mwah!</b>,<b> </b>the former being the ‘creation’ of a one-time girl-band member with four children and a drug habit, and the latter being that of a Big Brother contestant-cum-Posh Spice impersonator. Oh, and she glamour models.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Certainly, hubris and sheer, unadulterated greed have served to lead to the oversaturation of celebuscents, a process hastened by Z-list wannabes jumping gaily on the Britney Spears bandwagon. For, as sales figures clearly indicate, the celebuscent’s star is now well on the wane, and even Kylie and JLo’s bottoms appear to have dropped out of this market.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">For more mercilessly mockery of celebuscent nonsense, click <a href="http://www.galleryoftheabsurd.com/celebrity_fragrances/">here</a>.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">
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<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-19783386177421914202009-08-30T10:31:00.000-07:002012-08-21T14:55:58.930-07:00Caron Tabac Blond: Smokin’ <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOK9BX8awPsHj3Xkg3etYFoAaZ7pKqdbVU73zZBgPkbcaQfL697fo_RRshLtRZhnbrt-Td3zLxeVPA7SgdLHx_LWUYxS_y6FHq4LmfZ7aFV7E_bqg_RUV2VOqgvBOVm523M1gw1gPBp5w/s1600-h/MarleneDietrich1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375812289725804450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOK9BX8awPsHj3Xkg3etYFoAaZ7pKqdbVU73zZBgPkbcaQfL697fo_RRshLtRZhnbrt-Td3zLxeVPA7SgdLHx_LWUYxS_y6FHq4LmfZ7aFV7E_bqg_RUV2VOqgvBOVm523M1gw1gPBp5w/s320/MarleneDietrich1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 236px;" /></a><br />
<br />
In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the believing we do something when we do nothing is the first illusion of tobacco.<br />
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In the words of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Scentimentalist</span>, the believing we smell something when we do not is the first illusion of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond</span>.<br />
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Infamously idiosyncratic and nigh-on impossible to obtain, Caron’s 1919 <span style="font-style: italic;">chef d'oeuvre </span>has endured some 90 years without a tobacco flower or leaf in sight. Rather, it works its pliant and tantalising sleight of hand through an interfusion of leathery (isobutyl quinoline) topnotes, with a heart of spicy carnation, iris, vetiver and ylang-ylang, and a stolidly ambergris, musk, patchouli and vanilla base.<br />
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In its earliest incarnation, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond</span> (or <span style="font-style: italic;">Le Tabac Blond</span> as it was first known) would have been most usefully classed as a ‘leather chypre’, though recent assaults on its formulation appear to have left us with something more ‘oriental’ in orientation.<br />
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And herein lies the difficulty when we speak about <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond </span>(for such is the might of its legend that most who love perfume profess an opinion on this scent): of which version do we actually speak? For, as this author, amongst others, will readily testify, even a side-by-side sampling of the EdT, EdP and parfum concentrations yields wildly heterogeneous results – and this is before we take post-’80s formulation-fiddling into account.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZaoSy375Wjf_1Pq0N9T3zcue9LWMSSEKGHSiK6mnOa0uLi2pOXqhUp2TzJwMH-K1CdM1RanKPU3U8JcFgPdKLpDv-MHyZZlLofUpa6uYjo4SoK4oe0nLSdVrCAOr-vL5LghQ3A_TZ670/s1600-h/tabacdove.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375814220038203442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZaoSy375Wjf_1Pq0N9T3zcue9LWMSSEKGHSiK6mnOa0uLi2pOXqhUp2TzJwMH-K1CdM1RanKPU3U8JcFgPdKLpDv-MHyZZlLofUpa6uYjo4SoK4oe0nLSdVrCAOr-vL5LghQ3A_TZ670/s320/tabacdove.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 242px; width: 198px;" /></a><br />
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What is more immediate and less problematic to grasp is the context of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond</span>’s appearance: the social and cultural transformation that followed the First World War, owing in no small part to the presence of American servicemen in Europe. As the promise of women’s emancipation beckoned, and just as corsets were discarded for short, looser outfits for sporty, cigarette-smoking, bob-haired girls, Caron launched its olfactory homage to <span style="font-style: italic;">les belles androgynes</span> of that day.<br />
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It has been suggested that<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Tabac Blond</span> was first composed with a male market in mind; the fact that Caron elected to pitch this scent at the urbane, elegant sophisticate and the glamorous <span style="font-style: italic;">garçonne</span>, goes some way towards underscoring its unorthodox, <span style="font-style: italic;">avant-garde</span> character. As the Caron website is keen to remind us, this was a ‘deliberately provocative’ move on the company’s part.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond</span> still possesses the power to provoke and stir. Arresting images of (purported) devotee Marlene Dietrich present a striking fantasy of the ‘archetypal’ <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond</span> wearer. (<span style="font-style: italic;">On a side note: look at the length of the ash on Marlene’s cigarette in the image above. Its creator, Cornel Lucas, informed a confidante of mine that the star could maintain a pose for </span><span style="font-style: italic;">inordinate lengths of time</span>.) Curiously, many (including renowned perfume critic Luca Turin) have alluded to a certain ‘Sapphic’ quality to this scent, while it generates panting product endorsements such as the following, on Ebay: ‘[<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond</span> is] the scent that sends nuns to the dark side, angels to hell and saints to their knees. Pure carnal knowledge in a flacon.’<br />
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In the unrepentantly subjective view of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Scentimentalist</span>, there is no question that <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond</span> is a fragrance of profound sensuality. But, in her experience of its (highly attenuated) current form at least, it offers so much more besides: a smooth intelligence, a tawny insouciance, a liquory, golden heart. Where one might have anticipated ashtrays and resin, it delivers a caressing balm of the sweetest, most supple leather sillage.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Do </span>smoke in bed … for where else to wear <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabac Blond</span>?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_339lRx7fX00bQ7hv9OybZvZdt9nPjkmjCV2NNLSyGGDl2v3225ShUI8e_uaQe_CKIswNxNyQvSLeQt1OozNwy2YS62wNDhyFmtsn-9E2TSO1Zt5vVkh0uv-9vAVDy8q-mQhmQ8W_vQk/s1600-h/smoking.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375813041038133186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_339lRx7fX00bQ7hv9OybZvZdt9nPjkmjCV2NNLSyGGDl2v3225ShUI8e_uaQe_CKIswNxNyQvSLeQt1OozNwy2YS62wNDhyFmtsn-9E2TSO1Zt5vVkh0uv-9vAVDy8q-mQhmQ8W_vQk/s320/smoking.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 204px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-19979797435933815122009-08-16T13:55:00.000-07:002012-08-21T14:55:24.148-07:00YSL Kouros: So Macho<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Here at <i>The Scentimentalist</i>, we tend not to trouble ourselves with the notion of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ scents, preferring to take the view that these are puerile – if not cyn</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">ical – industry constructions, designed to create and sustain distinct gender-based markets.
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Pah! We exclaim. Didn’t both gentlemen and ladies wear toilet waters, way back when? Isn’t <b>Jicky</b> enjoyed as much by men (Sean Connery, anybody?) as women? Why, even I myself cross-dress in Penhaligon’s <b>Opus </b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;"><b>1870 </b>cologne<b>,</b> the camphorous leather of <b>Knize Ten, </b>and Czech & Speake’s incense-y <b>No. 88</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">If it smell</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">s good, we wear it! </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">And to hell with the gender typologies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">But there is one ‘archetypal m</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">asculine’ that I have yet to smell on a woman (though isolated internet testimonies imply that a miniscule minority of such ‘deviants’ exists). A scent so ineffably manly and macho, so irredeemably hunky and</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;"> virile, that only those in possession of a penis could ever comfortably, and effectively, wear it:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Kouros, </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">by Yves Saint Laurent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Kouros</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;"> burst in a fury of androgens onto the global scent arena back in 1981. For many who came into adolescence in that decade </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">– <i>The Scentimentalist</i> and mu</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">ch of her cohort included – this is the nonpareil Eighties power scent for men. An instantaneously brash, woody, animalic fougère, its use of incense, civet and ambergris ensuring projection of Scud-missile capabilities, this was a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">truly ‘men-only’ fragrance, for both gay and straight followers alike.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCLEru-ZS8swrqZM7ACryh8uBVDZE7dNkK4GQC-OHzsbnwQTyRtmB00Xoyb9788nQREjhyphenhyphenqo1oLIYvV_Y15M-yiUjTg7KrkRb7Yb5u_oGowsJoz5H6TVlxZ8vLAwhqVXyl00u_AV0GFOE/s1600-h/kouros+statue.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370669144816990994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCLEru-ZS8swrqZM7ACryh8uBVDZE7dNkK4GQC-OHzsbnwQTyRtmB00Xoyb9788nQREjhyphenhyphenqo1oLIYvV_Y15M-yiUjTg7KrkRb7Yb5u_oGowsJoz5H6TVlxZ8vLAwhqVXyl00u_AV0GFOE/s320/kouros+statue.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 129px;" /></a>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Kouros</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;"> man was an aspiring Adonis. <i>K<span class="highlight">ouros</span></i> (meaning ‘male youth’, ancient Greek κο</span><span style="font-size: 85%;">ῦ</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">ρος), is the modern term given to those statues of young men that first appeared in sanctuaries in the Archaic period in Greece. Sculpted commonly from marble, upright and naked, they served as representations of the god Apollo, and as tombstones for deceased victorious Olympic athletes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Bolstered by a canny, pre-<i>Men’s Health</i> marketing campaign, boasting hard-bodied, tight-bunned, butt-naked beefcake, <b>Kouros</b> peddled a fantasy of other-worldly masculinity. As the strapline for one magazine advert reads in French: <i>Les dieux vivants ont leur parfum: Kouros</i> (‘Living gods have their perfume: Kouros’).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Amongst the ‘living gods’ of my acquaintance wh</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">o wore this </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">stud-</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">scent were an early boyfriend (a former choirboy who sent me passionate, <b>Kouros</b>-smeared <i>billets-doux</i>), and just about every young Royal Marine on the base near my university, who would brawl each Saturday night with the local lads (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">similarly </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">chino-clad and soaked in <b>Kouros)</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">It may come as a surprise to some, but in 2010 the testosterone-fest that is <b>Kouros</b> remains a substantial seller, even (perhaps, <i>especially</i>) after the ‘wimpy’ aquatics and unisex offerings of the Nineties and beyond. For its many detractors, however, it remains vulgar and impertinent, redolent only of body odour, semen and deodorising cakes used in men’s urinals </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">– </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">and all the while stuck in a relentless 1980s time-warp.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Are you a lover or hater of <b>Kouros</b>? What, for you, is the most ‘macho’ scent? Share your thoughts below with <i>The Scentimentalist</i>.</span></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-47043605408194520072009-08-06T07:04:00.000-07:002012-08-21T14:55:00.706-07:00Cacharel Anaïs Anaïs: Never As Good As the First Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">I had been itching to get my hands on her for ages.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p>If ever Mum went out, I’d steal in, to cop a feel. To prise her open and press her nozzle, to roll her coolness, to feel her weight.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p>Time and again, she left her tale-telling residue behind: on my hands, on my nose. My wretched fumblings exposed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p>Treachery, trespass. <i>How do I get you alone?</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I wasn’t yet thirteen; far too young for ladies’ ways. In my room, I’d mash up rose petals and chalk to a scented tincture. Family holidays to St Ives supplied <span style="font-weight: bold;">Devon Violets</span>, a nuclear, lime-jelly green set off with a purple faux-satin bow. Rancid Avon cast-offs coloured umber in the glare of my window.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Yet, all the desperate while, my loyal girl’s heart beat a loving tattoo–for her, for the doubly dubbed … <b>Anaïs Anaïs</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">What a romance ours was! She was an armful–a profusion–of the whitest, most spirituous flowers. She was a beauty of the finest pre-Raphaelite proportions. She was Alphonse Mucha women hazily captured through gossamer gauze. She was lilies in pastel shades, she was semi-opaque. She was young. She was <i>feminine</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">She was also doing the rounds with just about every other girl of my age, not to mention my own dear mother and then–the shame!–my poor, mild-mannered Gran. She rolled capriciously from palm to palm, she clung without compunction to a million necks.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">By the time I had been deemed of sufficient maturity to partake freely of </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;"><b>Anaïs Anaïs</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">, her ubiquity had–for me–become a phenomenon beyond the pale. I quickly tired of her. She soured. I dumped her ass for a bottle of<b>Ysatis</b>.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Yesterday, I caught a quick glimpse of <b>Anaïs Anaïs</b> in the window of my local Superdrug. Cryogenically preserved; a tawdry, heart-breaking £12.95.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I wanted to smell her again–just once! She was my first. Had she changed? <i>Had I?</i> Nostalgic desire. I cogitated: <i>Could we ever relive</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><i> t</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><i>he magic?</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I asked the check-out girl to retrieve her from her ignominious top-shelf exile. My request was met with a grimace, a look of jaded, adolescent incredulity: <i>Are you for real? You want to smell <b>that</b> old shit?<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I just want to try it, I fudged (as though that were my very first time). She tried to convince me with steely resistance that, she was sorry, but there was no tester.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Oh, yes there is, I pressed. I was taller than her. I could see it up there, behind that box, there, at the back.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">She made a conspicuous display of lugging over a recalcitrant footstool. She sprayed the back of my hand. I wordlessly fled. I found a nearby, desolate alleyway, and stopped.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Only then would I take her to my heart again …<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Anaïs Anaïs</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">. She wasn’t unlovely. She was full-on, top-heavy, lily-loaded, pugnacious. I was embarrassed to say that I found her loud–sharp, even–and, frankly, dispiritingly one-dimensional. She was also far less romantic and whimsical than I recalled, though (to her dubious credit) her unsubtle tenacity meant that, for a 'floral bouquet', she certainly went the distance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Soon sated and deflated, I slunk back to my business and other chores. The day wore on. I tried honourably to memorialise my first love, but t</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">he thrill was gone. </span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Anaïs Anaïs</span></b></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> and her</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> sillage had faded; she expired just as my memory of ever desiring her was expunged.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Do you remember your first scent like you remember your first love? Share your secrets here, with <i>The Scentimentalist</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-88714300820026080792009-08-01T09:24:00.000-07:002012-08-17T05:55:35.401-07:00Orientalism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Oh, we’ve all heard about the lure of the so-called ‘Orient’, not least here in the fantasy world of fragrance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">A cheerful – if lazy – conflation of anything falling vaguely eastwards of Bulgaria, this mythical clime has gifted us fruits as choice and rare as frankincense, myrrh, aoud, lotus, sandalwood and <i>Rosa damascena</i>. The art and technologies of perfume making are firmly in the Orient’s debt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Such is the pull of the exotic, erotic ‘East’ that the noble house of Guerlain boasts largely Orient-inspirited scents among its ‘feminine’ perfume classics.
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Chief among these is the stately <b>Shalimar</b>, inspired by Emperor Shah Jahan’s exquisite ‘Temple of Love’ (<i>Shalimar</i>) gardens in Lahore. Its jazz-age sister, <b>Mitsouko</b>, a fruity chypre of impeccable pedigree, is named for the winsome Japanese heroine of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Claude Farrère’s novel <i>La Bataille</i>. And <b>Samsara</b>, an<b> </b>otherworldly, Eighties floriental, takes the Sanskrit term for ‘eternal birth’ as its conceptual brief and name.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">For Occidentals and others living beyond the nebulous ‘East’, what are the olfactory associations of the Orient?
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Perfumed Garden</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">? The <i>Kama Sutra</i>? <b>Opium</b>? <b>Cinnabar</b>? The path to Nirvana?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Perhaps predic</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">tably, the imagined ‘Orient’ may be reduced to clichéd stereotypes and binarisms: sensuality rubbing up against Zen-like serenity; ripe voluptuousness spilling over into spirituality. The East is a compelling, vaguely scandalous, fragrant paradise; women who wear its scents become bewitching, inscrutable odalisques.
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">Even the estimable Yardley of London, most famed for its Old English Lavender and other toilet waters, was seduced by the marketing pull of ‘Eastern promise’. Possibly titillated by Guerlain’s discontinued treasure <b>Kadine</b>, in 1968 Yardley launched its own <b>Khadine,</b> a Delacroix floral elixir of roses, silks and perfumed pools.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">And who was the feminine paragon around whom this scent was created, even as women’s liberation snapped at the heels of the mode</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">rn woman? The <i>kadine</i>, the ‘Chosen One’, the Sultan’s favourite of the <i>harim</i>. A fragrant, fetishised fantasy. A courtesan in cologne.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 85%;">What do ‘Oriental’ scents mean to you? Share your fantasies here with <i>The Scentimentalist</i>.</span></div>
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The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-45528900993075216812009-07-28T12:53:00.000-07:002011-01-05T03:00:33.204-08:00The Lady of the Gardenias<span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWYfTWzoxzb0SiS1fTQuA0dAp0UNj6oHsipW3sS60qlH7Z__bU0NPqdc0B1BYLDeyBHni9iXijhzbtPcBWM5mWwvqcz2hKTSs3xUrsjmPnJv774yUOVrYNtEw5C4BzBr3DdxCpKMCRW0w/s1600-h/billie-and-mister320.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363602365574250482" style="width: 180px; cursor: pointer; height: 271px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWYfTWzoxzb0SiS1fTQuA0dAp0UNj6oHsipW3sS60qlH7Z__bU0NPqdc0B1BYLDeyBHni9iXijhzbtPcBWM5mWwvqcz2hKTSs3xUrsjmPnJv774yUOVrYNtEw5C4BzBr3DdxCpKMCRW0w/s320/billie-and-mister320.jpg" border="0" /></a>
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" equiv="Content-Type"><meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"><meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"><meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520078593 -1073717157 41 0 66047 0;} @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style>
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<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;">Some friends and I got to discoursing last night, and sparring gently about floral aromas that we love: night scented stock, sweet peas, wisteria, peony, freesia, lilac, orange blossom. Our discussion having a transatlantic dimension, I asked my friend – a resident of the ‘Sunshine State’ of Florida – about the gardenia flower: Did it grow there? And how did this tropical beauty smell?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><span style="font-style: italic;">Oh my dear</span>, he responded. <i style="font-style: italic;">I have several gardenia, and the fragrance is heady and dark, like Billie Holiday</i><span style="font-style: italic;">. Hypnotic and whorish. Slick black women with shiny legs and wet, black cherry lips ..</span>.
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<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN">Oh, wow, oh, wow, I said. We must commit this scent anecdote to history.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN">He told me more about southern trees, and their strange fruit:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family:Georgia;">… It happens to be one of my favourite scent memories. I had a transsexual friend back in the ’70s who wore <b>Jungle Gardenia</b>. She would sit on the back upstairs porch and sing Billie in a floral satin nightgown ... her small, hormonal breasts exposed, dewy from the bath, her candy tucked safely away. Wind chimes in the Florida dusk sang with the cicadas and the air was heavy with the smell of black booty and sweet, sweet gardenia ...</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN">We listened to Billie, my friend and I, my mind befuddled with the imagined scent of this flower. Before I slept, my Floridian confidant soothed: <i>Close your eyes and remember with me … </i>
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<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN">I sought to learn more about the pungently exotic <b>Jungle Gardenia</b>, launched by </span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;">Tuvaché in 1932, and </span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN">– as legend has it – beloved of</span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;" lang="EN"> </span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;">Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, Joan Crawford, Fay Wray and … Frank Sinatra. It was the favoured scent, we are informed, of <span style="font-size:0;"> </span>‘Auntie Mame’ Dennis, played by Rosalind Russell in the 1958 movie of that name.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;">But, by the end of this same decade, <b>Jungle Gardenia</b> seems a somewhat tawdry and spent force. Despite its hazy marketing premise that ‘summer events cast velvety shadows’, it became best known as a bottom-end drugstore fragrance, and for being offered as a consolation prize to losers on the US daytime quiz show ‘Truth or Consequences’.
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<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;">Now long out of production in its original formula, one-time wearers of <b>Jungle Gardenia, </b>along with their (sometimes long-suffering) associates, continue to hail and revile this scent with equal gusto, while a host of copies and (sad) reformulations crowd the sites of opportunistic e-vendors. With vintage bottles now selling for upwards of $200, this cheapened glamourpuss is once again valued – and desired.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;">Now.
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<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Close your eyes and remember with Lady Day and The Scentimentalist …</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);font-family:Georgia;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs">Strange Fruit</a></span><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
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<br />The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-65519818562729309992009-07-26T07:38:00.000-07:002011-01-05T02:59:06.922-08:00Do You Remember the First Time … ?<span style="font-size:85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SmxwmDslRKI/AAAAAAAAABs/FOv8QuPIHr8/s1600-h/Chanelno5-Ad-1921-Sem.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 209px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLIIU8GpUzM/SmxwmDslRKI/AAAAAAAAABs/FOv8QuPIHr8/s320/Chanelno5-Ad-1921-Sem.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362785055421056162" border="0" /></a>
<br /></span><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link style="font-family: georgia;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CKate%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Georgia;font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
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<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">An inquisitive little girl, about six or seven years old. At grandma’s – where else? It had to be at grandma’s. A dark-wood dressing table, a vanity mirror, a cut-glass tray. A square, sized just to fit into a small girl’s salty palm. A recalcitrant oblong stopper, that had to be sneakily eased from its socket. You had to know better than to tug this, to save spilling its luminous contents.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Chanel <span style="font-weight: bold;">No.5</span> parfum. <span style="font-style: italic;">L</span><span style="font-style: italic;">e monstre</span>. A gift – perhaps carefully, thoughtlessly? chosen – from a duty free counter in some far-flung clime.
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">My first olfactory encounter of import, my first recognition of the power – and <span style="font-style: italic;">status </span>– of scent.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Gran revered but seemed somewhat mistrustful of the stuff. Certainly, I never recall her choosing ever to wear it. She was happier in the lightly acrid chypre of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Madame Rochas</span>, the sober, spicy floral of <span style="font-weight: bold;">L’Air du Temps</span>, the tang of Elnette.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">And so the No.5 remained, a forbidding totem, on the cut-glass tray. I feared it even as I worshipped it; I’ll never quite understand why. It lost its glow, became viscous and thickened, then met its end with my grandmother’s death. Where that small, square bottle went, I’ll never know. It doesn’t matter.
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<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The song has ended, so it goes, but the melody lingers on.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Do you remember <span style="font-style: italic;">your </span>first meaningful encounter with scent? Share your memories here, with <span style="font-style: italic;">The Scentimentalist</span>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;">
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<br /></span>The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3451296477223734429.post-71603011756947374642009-07-25T04:32:00.000-07:002009-07-27T15:33:03.090-07:00It Started With a Sniff …<span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUJUuYzzCHsM5hpXoiK3wh0FHkV-_7Uo3HaesJtFiTGQD-HDeazVQiZ5PuVcH_6JtDEpuoIZ-GfXU0y2rTIxogHVWF4FFRmMfpIlcDcwZcEt7DTLGk9vmBiKVm1xDd4MRxODTZXltkfeQ/s1600-h/432945257_6b833cf655_m.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 183px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUJUuYzzCHsM5hpXoiK3wh0FHkV-_7Uo3HaesJtFiTGQD-HDeazVQiZ5PuVcH_6JtDEpuoIZ-GfXU0y2rTIxogHVWF4FFRmMfpIlcDcwZcEt7DTLGk9vmBiKVm1xDd4MRxODTZXltkfeQ/s320/432945257_6b833cf655_m.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362361360767065074" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />You are entering a unique olfactory world.</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >A world where fragrance and ideas cavort and collide. Where scented loves and hates are debated and defended to the death.</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >What do boys wear? What should girls wear? When did you have your perfume ‘epiphany’? How do scent and memory bisect? Is perfume politics? Is it sex? Can it be more than a molecular miasma? What are its meanings?</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Is it art?</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Here to chair your conversations is your host, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Scentimentalist</span>. Views and olfactory anecdotes are welcome. Share the love.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>The Scentimentalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01726819132736339666noreply@blogger.com9