angels

I've made my ultimate fragrance sample order (in the US...already have an Etiket order lined up for when I'm back in Canada opps), so here's my latest batch of impressions for the Saks samples:


L’artisan Parfumeur L’historie d’orange
It’s a orange blossom. This is all.
I think I’m ambivalent about orange blossom as a note. Definitely like it in a blend, but not enough as a soliflore. But the performance on this is pretty good, I was not expecting much since orange blossom is moreso a fleeting note. Projection is good, can easily smell from elbow distance away. The scent is linear, which I believe is the design intent and probably technically difficult to achieve with orange blossom. Also gotta give props to the team for their restraint in not adding any other notes.

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L’artisan Parfumeur Un Air de Bretagne
I swear I know what the opening smells like, but can’t pinpoint the word. Ah! Like 风油精! Or like the other chinese herbal sauves/oils. It’s a sharp and sparkling, and would definitely cut through the awful humidity in Houston right now. I feel quite ambivalent about this fragrance once this settles and lose its sharpness. If this is a good representation of “aquatics”, then I don’t think its a genre that I’m into. 

It’s interesting that all my scent memories are of times when I’m in China, aka from when I was really young. Maybe that’s why I’m interested in fragrances that feature flowers from my childhood, like peony, lotus, osmanthus, etc.

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Penhaligon’s Savoy Steam
I really wanted to like this one’s smell. The concept is perfect, the bottle is super cute, and the notes sounded like what I typically enjoy. But alas it didn’t work out :( I love the first 2 minutes of the opening: a burst of light roses, and a quick whiff of the eucalyptus. But then…what I describe as the sulphurous hot spring note emerges and ruins everything for me. Too 闷. As the scent settles, the other nice aromatic notes appear, but always underscored by the awful sulphurous hot spring note. I’m not sure whether this is a unique reaction on my skin, or if its the design intent since the concept is a turkish bath. Luckily the awful note is largely absent at a distance, so this is wearable for me.

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Penhaligon’s Cousin Flora
Citrus and then musk. I feel pretty ambivalent about it, good performance (projection and longevity) for a citrus tho.

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Penhaligon’s Cousin Matthew
Citrus, but a green citrus rather than Flora’s pure citrus. It’s more to my liking. The petit grain shows up after about 15mins, and I looooove the smell of petit grain.But I’m having a hard time justifying the price for a “simple” (not really simple I suppose, since making citruses last is a technical feat) scent. Actually scratch that, I must admit that I considered blind buying Perfumer H’s orange leaves just because there’s not many good petit grain centric perfumes (just searched it up, they don’t seem to sell online? darn) It is my favourite citrus out of all my sampling so far, more so than Le Labo’s Bergamote 22.

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As a bonus, I did a comparison between Penhaligon's Duke and Sohan:

Duke: opens with a blast of fresh rose, which then recedes to make room for the spices. This time I sprayed on warm & slightly damp skin (right after shower) and that really magnified the cumin. So. Much. Cumin. I don’t find it off-putting but it’s definitely not something I want as the primary note. Interestingly the official description doesn’t list cumin as a note. Perhaps its the combination of pepper and leather? After ~5 mins, the spices and rose come into more of a balance. The two notes are blended, but I can still perceive them as distinctive. The rose is sort of sheer…like a jammy rose (so somewhat sweet) that’s been thinned to a glaze consistency. There’s a sharp fresh / green note that returns from the immediate opening. As it settles, the rose begins to be more prominent than the spices, although if I put my nose tight next to it, the cumin is still strong. Actually it seems like the rose and spice alternates in prominence. Overall, this is a cool-weather, uplifting rose for me.

Sohan: it’s a woody rose from the start, more wood than rose. Both note is very smoothly blended into each other and hard to distinguish. It feels somewhat dry. As it settles, the scent gains some transparency, which is more agreeable to me. There’s also some sweetness once it settles, rather than the dry opening. Funny enough, the base is woody with a slight spice tinge. Overall, this is a cool-weather, comforting rose for me, although I don’t like it enough for a full bottle.

it was cold out on the way home

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The most poignant description of grief I've read. I totally feel the less sad = more sad

grace

This week's salad: the good ol' french lentil

Unfortunately I didn't do a good job of making this iteration:

• Overcooked the lentils. I was being dumb and used my usual timing but didn't account for the fact that I soaked the lentils beforehand. Lesson learned is soaking lentils actually make your life harder. There is a much longer window to achieve the perfect texture when cooking unsoaked lentils. 
• Mushy vegetable texture: this is more situation than my active fault, as I had frozen celery (so already mushy), really old carrots (somewhat mushy), and cooked the onions first while I was chopping the other two (actually my fault). 

The radish was also more pleasant when chopped smaller than what's shown in the photos, although they look better in bigger chunks 😂

ghosts

clasp

I feel fortunate that I'm not really a bag person, since those damages can easily before worse than shoes (maybe). But Celine is the brand that consistently produces bags that I like:

Medium 16 Bag (satiated calfskin, black)

They did discontinue my previous moonshot bag, for which I can only be mildly annoyed about because of how little probability there existed of me ever owning one. I still doubt I'll drop more than 2k on a bag (knock on wood), so this would also be something I won't own.

Also for the price of one of the above, I can almost afford everything I'm interested in from Aspinal:

Aspinal total = $4335, just a tad less than $1000 cheaper than the Celine. Though it feels reasonable to have a complete formal bag wardrobe for around 5k. On second thought...I do think I will end up with about 5k worth of shoes as well, opps.

logan

I've not been very lucky with my selection of fragrance samples from Sephora. Did not enjoy any of the 3 that I chose.

Burberry My Burberry
Opening is fruity and floral, which is pleasant but not really my thing. I get a whiff of green apple, abstract florals, and a fruity sweetness. After a couple of minutes, the floral takes over from the fruits. A floral that is quite sweet.

Hermes Un Jardin Sur le Nil
For some reason all I get is an extremely soapy scent. I don’t recall it smelling like this when I tried it before. But the immediate opening is soapy, after half an hour its the same soapiness. It’s an old fashioned, floral soap. The projection of this is surprisingly good, especially considering what I’ve read about the Jardin series being quite fleeting. So far 2 hours in and it’s still the floral soap. Need to test this again as I'm finding it hard to believe that my memory of this is so different

Hermes Eau Des Merveilles Bleue
It opens with some sparkling citrus and quickly turns into an aquatic note? Not too sure, but then the sparkling texture turns into more of a still water, like a tidal pool? If I smell very closely, there's a plastic note alongside the aquatic plant note. A weird impression. Ah the plastic is probably the amber note, darn! Also noticed the patch of skin that I sprayed this on has turned red, assuming that's an allergic reaction so time to scrub this off and never touch it again.

I did blind buy Commodity Vetiver since the brand is being discontinued and there was only one 10ml spray left in store. This one I like more, although still too sweet overall. The opening smells like honey and black tea...huh. Official notes lists Apple, blackberry and petalia (a floral accord I assume). The scent stays like this for about 3 hours, and then slowly fades. I can somewhat smell the vetiver as it fades, but its definitely not a dominant note. I searched up Petalia and it's suppose to be a peony accord. Didn't get that impression, but I've also solemnly had the chance to smell peonies. 

Been thinking about why I dislike amber, resins and sweet notes and it comes down to 闷. I'm not sure what the best translation for this feeling is. On the more extreme end, it's like suffocating. Maybe stuffy? Like how you feel on a super humid day. Sweet is more like 腻. Google translates that as unctuous, TIL a new word. Both awful feelings. 

#12

yesterday night's looping thoughts and music brought to you by Garamond, such a pretty font! I'm sad that there's no regular opportunities to use all of the nice fonts I've accumulated.