Moon Valley by Escentual Alchemy --- Wow.

Half-dome Moonrise, 

Sheldon Neill

I could have just left this post as-is with the headline, because it just about sums up my feelings. Instead, being a wordy little son-of-a-gun, I will keep running my mouth.

I really wasn't sure what to expect out of a perfume called "Moon Valley" (by Amanda Feeley's Escentual Alchemy). Something cold? Something distant? Something... I dunno why, but metallic?*

*I said I don't know why. Just go with it.

What I got, though, was a complete surprise!

Esscentual Alchemy's Moon Valley natural perfume opens with a hint of the dew that falls at night.

Following with a fresh heirloom muskmelon scent, and exotic herbs.
Mouthwateringly enticing. Next comes the smell of well-travelled luggage,
that has seen alluring, glamourous, and out of the way ports of call,
and has stood the test of time, and the rigors of the journey.

Ends with a spicy dry down.

Perfume Ingredients: Vetiver, Antique Oakmoss, Hyrax, Orris, Jasmine Grandiflorum, Lilac, Tuberose, Carnation, Peach Accord, Virginia Cedar, Natural isolate of Heliotrope 

So, what did I actually smell?

There's lilac in that there perfume! 

Hot damn! I do loves me a lilac perfume. This is no simple soliflore, though, which is good because those bore me quickly.  I don't know if anyone else would jump to the lilac first, by the way, but I'm such a fan that I just can't help but note it!

The other florals makes Moon Valley nice and round, while the peachy-melon highlights the sweetness and gives it a little heft. And you know what? There's a little bit of that metal I was expecting - just a twinge of it in the orris (iris root). This is Amanda's personal "take" on the gone-but-not-forgotten Iris Gris (Jacques Fath), after all.

The mood for this scent is a happy one. It makes me feel happy and cheerful - and a little absurd because I keep sniffing myself.

This is the best kind of fruity floral and I think it's going on my Christmas Wishlist.

Moon Valley @Etsy; @Artfire

Trésor by Lancome: Treasure or Tragedy? (a perfume review)

Trésor has been around a long time. I've been around longer, so how come I've never tried it?

I have no good answer for that, but at least now I've rectified the situation.

Despite never having spritzed this well-known scent, it turns out I was quite familiar with it! I must be the only woman I know who didn't partake at the Lancôme counter. At first sample I was struck by that "oh, that's what I was smelling" feeling. There's no specific woman on whom I can pin this scent. More likely it's the scent of the masses - those faceless women you pass in crowds, stand next to in the elevator, and hold the door for at the mall.

That's not a rant, by the way. Familiarity doesn't equal "bad" -  at least not all the time. I mean, many of us recognize Chanel No. 5 and Shalimar when they walk by, and those perfumes aren't exactly shlubs.

Back to Trésor... On me, it's mostly two phases. The first is an apricot-peach layered over rose. This lasts an hour or so. The next phase is a powdered peachy amber, which is a lot better than it sounds.

How does it wear, you ask? Long and hard! If you spray heavily, you will find yourself surrounded by people suffering 90's flashbacks. Injuries may be incurred. Sillage is formidable at these higher doses, and not too shabby when Trésor is administered judiciously. Tenacity ranks in the "eons" range.

I am a fan of powdery ambers, and the peachy nuance is a nice twist compared to others in my collection. My sample was of the modern Trésor, which is apparently not nearly as nice as the vintage. What is?

If I had to pinpoint a mood for Trésor , I'd probably use the trite label "romantic". Personally, I look forward to wearing it on my next antique-hunting date with hubby. It feels lighthearted and flirty to me, though I'm sure the powdery aspect (with rose, no less) gets this one the dreaded (and stupid) Old Lady label from some. Meh - their loss!
 

Do you treasure Trésor? What are your feelings about peach notes and ambery drydowns? Do you like peach cobbler?

House: Lancôme
Perfume: Trésor
Perfumer: Sophia Grojsman
Notes: apricot blossom, rose, lilac, iris, peach, amber, sandalwood, musk, vanilla
Released: 1990
Sample: sample provided by friend

Final Word: A real peach.

images: a; b

Perfume Review: Angel (Thierry Mugler)

This weekend, I worked at a huge event at a DC-area mall. It was packed and I felt like I was standing at a conveyer belt doing makeup! But as busy as it was, it was a blast. The women I worked with (coworkers and clients) were lovely. Except...

Except for the woman who worked for the department store in some aspect, the one who kept walking past dragging a huge cloud of Thierry Mugler's infamous Angel in her wake.

                                                    It was exactly like this...                                       via

Angel. Infamy! It's strong. Intense. Rich. Distinctive. Polarizing. Easily overdone.

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Each time this woman walked by she nearly choked me. You're reading the words - maybe even nodding in understanding. But I don't know you really get it. Let me flesh out this scene a bit more, make it more clear. When you stand in a cosmetics department for 8 hours, you lose all ability to discern scent. You no longer smell your own perfume, even snuffling your wrist. The wall of perfume, the women and men milling about in their own fragrances... It's immediate olfactory shut-down.

The fact that I could smell that woman's Angel in such a setting and to such an extent...Damn! That's a testament to the power of the stuff. And I didn't just smell it - I could nearly taste it. It literally stuck in my nostrils and stayed with me for over a half an hour after leaving!

Ok, so we've talked about Angel's power. *Shudder*

What does it smell like? No, really, I'm kind of joking now. Just about everyone and their mother know what Angel smells like. Well, maybe my Mother doesn't (Hi, Mom!). For her, let's briefly discuss...

                                                Not a fan.                              via

The list of notes shows the insanity: melon, coconut, mandarin orange, cassia, jasmine, bergamot, cotton candy, honey, apricot, blackberry, plum, orchid, peach, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, red berries,rose, tonka bean, amber and vanilla, patchouli, musk, vanilla, dark chocolate and caramel.

Bizarre, right? But somehow, it works. It works! And it's the scent that launched a thousand ships, too. Angel opened wide the genre of gourmand fragrance: foody scents, perfumes that smell like dessert or confections.

On me, Angel is a pleasant chocolate patchouli. (One hundred and fifty thousand notes, and that's all I get: chocolate patchouli!?)

I love it, though, I really do, but grab my sample rarely. I have to a moment to consider why that is, huh? In part, I think I don't want to smell like anyone else. (Imagine if TWO of us wore it this weekend?) Also, it such a polarizing scent (many people loathe it 1) - do I want to offend? Of course not! And then there's the power. As someone who was a teen in the 80's, I live in fear of overwhelming throw and stifling sillage.

So I wear it at home from time to time. Just a drop! And I revel in the chocolate patchouli for awhile.
Like most overly rich confections Angel is a treat best enjoyed in small amounts only now and again.

House: Thierry Mugler
Fragrance: Angel
Perfumer: Olivier Cresp & Yves Chirin
Released: 1992
Notes: melon, coconut, mandarin orange, cassia, jasmine, bergamot, cotton candy, honey, apricot, blackberry, plum, orchid, peach, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, red berries,rose, tonka bean, amber and vanilla, patchouli, musk, vanilla, dark chocolate and caramel
Sample: I can't even recall where it came from (ages ago).

Final Word: Sweet in small doses.

Here's an Angel many of us can agree on!

[1] Got some free time? Peruse the Basenotes, Makeup Alley, and Fragrantica reviews of Angel. What a riot! Example: Fragrantica's ADAMbergris says "This is surely (Madam) Satan's signature scent..." Meanwhile, MUA's ipatieva says "...My friend tried it too and she smelled like a homeless person with wet dog." My favorite, though, is autumn89 on Basenotes: "It smells like diabetes would if it had a smell."



Tell me: do you Angel? And were you a Buffy fan? Team Spike or Team Angel?
(While I can appreciate Angel, I was firmly on Team Spike!)

Perfume Review: Jimmy Choo

Let's just start here, for lack of a better place: I do not own any Jimmy Choo products. Not shoes, not handbags, and definitely not the Uggs.

I'm aware of the legacy of Jimmy Choo, and I admire Tamara Mellon for being a savvy and successful business woman.

Mellon and Choo certainly have a great understanding of the luxury market! I clearly do not have a great understanding of the luxury market. I wear Skechers. I own numerous t-shirts, none of which cost more than $15. My "handbag" is from Target. Much of my jewelry is hand-crafted by artisans (I like craft shows), but doesn't really have a lot of value. Let's just say Lindsey won't bother stealing any of my stuff.

Tamara enjoys it...

The only luxury items I own are cosmetics and perfume. The former I know a lot about, and the latter I'm learning.

Mellon, who also poses in the ads, is apparently "into" perfumes. She's been wanting to create one for 15 years, the press releases assure.

Reviews of Jimmmy Choo's first perfume are mixed. It seems to be the kneejerk reaction to assume new, mass-merchandised scents are bad. Some are. Some aren't. But is this one...?



Let me describe it, first. The opening is a musky peachy citrus blend on my skin. Not sharp, plastic, or fake. We're off to a good start! It quickly adds a floral aspect that's a bit harsh (like the spike of a high heel?) at first, then slowly rounds out a bit. The lower notes of Jimmy Choo perfume are a gourmand-inflected patchouli. Not foody, but somewhat caramelized.

It wears well, with a presence. Sillage is moderate-to-strong; lasting power was medicore (fading on my skin in about 4 hours).


This is a people-pleaser scent, in a way, but also somewhat more complex than most of the recent launches I've smelled at Nordstrom and Saks. It's got the fruity bit that's so common popular right now (and I think it does it well). It's got that woody (not oud-y) bit that's so common popular right now (and I think it does it well). It also has that sugary bit all the kids like (and I think it does it well). It's a little of everything and as slippery to pin down as JELL-O. It's kind of like some of the Jimmy Choo shoes which, to me, appear to have a lot going on even when providing fairly minimal coverage.

I like Jimmy Choo perfume. I enjoyed the various phases. I also like that, thanks to the aldehydes present, this seems like a Perfume (Big 'P') rather than simply a perfume. Dressy. "Night-time". I'm a bit cavalier about wearing perfumes whenever the heck I want to, but many may consider this a scent to pair with A Big Girl Dress... and Jimmy Choo slingbacks, of course!

That said, I still don't own anything marked with the Jimmy Choo label. While I found this perfume interesting and pleasant (and will use the rest of the sample eventually) I prefer the floral-patchouli of Flowerbomb (Viktor & Rolf) and Chinatown (Bond No. 9) to the genre of "fruitchoulis" or neo-chypres or however one might label this perfume. Still, I wouldn't say no to a free bottle. Tamara?

House: Jimmy Choo
Fragrance: Jimmy Choo
Perfumer: Olivier Polge
Released: 2010
Notes: green notes, pear nectar, sweet orange from Italy, Tiger Orchid, caramel, Indonesian patchouli.
Sample: obtained at Saks; also liberally spritzed from tester.

Final Word: pretty.






Other reviews of Jimmy Choo: 

• 1000fragrances: Jimmy Choo eponymous perfume - new fragrance review
• Perfume Posse: Jimmy Choo perfume
• The Scented Salamander:  Jimmy Choo, The Perfume (2011): Mix and Match Like a Fashionable Cameleon {Fragrance Review}
• On Basenotes 
• On Fragrantica 
• On Makeup Alley

Perfume Review: Le Mimosa (Annick Goutal)

Here's how I could do this whole review, were I succinct and a little more artsy...

Annick Goutal's new, limited edition Spring scent, Le Mimosa smells like this:

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The End.

*****************************

Sadly, Lucky for you, I'm not at all comfortable with verbal brevity. For your entertainment, a more wordy review follows.

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Le Mimosa is "a soliflore". To save you other Newbies some Google Time, I've done some legwork. A soliflore focuses on a single flower. There's a catch, though. In the words of the esteemable Angela of Now Smell This, a "soliflore is a perfumer's vision, an interpretation of the scent of a flower". ^[1]

In the much less eloquent words of yours truly, a soliflore is a flower or bloom as seen sniffed through the eyes nose of a perfumer. Some rose soliflores play up the honeyed nuances of the bloom, others the spice, while others include green stemmy aspects. It can be said that when it comes to perfumery a rose is a rose is a rose but all roses are not created equal... or something.

OK, so let's get back to Le Mimosa, shall we? It's (wait for it...) a mimosa soliflore.

I don't know too much about mimosa. I've heard of the drink, which is a one part champagne, one part orange juice cocktail. And we have invasive trees here in Virginia called "Mimosas" which look like the these:

silk trees aka  "junk trees"
via

But I'm pretty sure they're also called "silk trees" and aren't what the Annick Goutal folk were referencing. I'm certain they were after the big golden fluffies in the other pictures - a harbinger of Spring to folks all over the world ^[2] and a cousin to the ones near my home ^[3].

What does the yellow fluffy mimosa smell like? I can't speak from personal experience, because even though I think the fernlike fronds and happy puffball blooms are pretty, around here silk trees are usually found along roads and lining ditches, earning the classification as  "junk trees" according to my husband. And they probably don't smell like the yellow ones, anyway. Sigh.

Smooth mango goodness.
via

We already know putting words to scents is tricky business. What little I've been able to find describing the scent of mimosa tends to involve these words: sweet; slightly fruity; honey; mango; cucumber. ^[4]
By the way, can we all say "mango smoothie"? Um, yum!

I suppose what's important is what Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen think a mimosa smells like, since they created this perfume. Here's what they have to say:

^{Built around a mimosa absolute from Grasse, with sweet floral hues punctuated by soft green, Florentine iris and anise are added to enhance the flower's natural facets with their powdery strength. At the heart of the composition a peach, with sweet undertones of sun-drenched flesh, using its fruity curves as though to adorn the mimosa with unprecedented radiance. Then the white musk makes its entrance, draped over a light sandalwood frame, to carefully wrap the wake of this soft single flower perfume in a silky, milky and deliciously addictive blanket.}

What do I think it smells like? Heaven! To elaborate: a peachy honeyed musk. For you synesthetics: I don't picture yellow when I try to pin a color association on this perfume. Instead, I see the color of the flesh of a ripe mango. And there just may be a mango facet to this scent (just sayin').


While a soliflore, Le Mimosa is neither linear nor "one-note". It's as complex as any bloom, and shows several faces as the fragrance develops.


I do detect a slight flirtation with anise in the opening, and if you're an anise-phobe like myself please know that it's amazingly delightful here: soft, necessary, fleeting.

Is this a peach scent? No. While there is peach present, I'd say this perfume is peach-toned. Just as a peachy streak enhances a gorgeous sunset, but a sunset isn't only orange, so this perfume contains peach without being a peachy perfume. Sometimes I think I only make sense to myself, but what I'm getting at is the peachy tones enhance the scent without for even one millisecond resembling an artificial peach perfume.

Do I pick up the iris, though? Not really. Maybe a tad as the heart folds softly into the drydown. Speaking of the drydown, can we talk about how lovely a softly powdered & musky, vanilla'd sandalwood sounds?! Delish.

What happens when you Google "baby kitten peach"
via

On me, the peach honey phase is not long enough, but lasts a good hour or two. The drydown is still perceptible on my skin eons later (like, the next morning). My dab-on sample doesn't have a lot of presence or sillage; not sure how spraying would change this, but I suspect it might. If I remember, once I buy my bottle(s) I'll update you.


If I were asked to describe the scent via nose picture, I'd be concocting some visual metaphor involving kittens and peaches and the soft smell of a baby's head. But that would be weird. Instead I'll do a word association: soft; cuddly; fresh; happy; yellow velvet; fluffy; comforting; delicious; soothing; Spring.

In case you're looking for me this Spring and early Summer, you'll find me climbing mimosa trees along the highway, pressing my nose into the fluffy blooms and wearing Annick Goutal's Le Mimosa - just so ya know.







Fragrance: Le Mimosa
House: Annick Goutal
Nose: Isabelle Doyen
Release: March 1, 2011 as a limited edition
Notes: Anise, Florentine iris, sun-drenched peach, white musks, sandalwood and mimosa
Sample: Annick Goutal website ~ I asked for a sample.

Final Word: Full bottle-worthy plus a backup.









[1] I was going to go through this whole "each artist paints a subject differently" thing, but since Now Smell This beat me to it, read the metaphor here. (warning: all links to other blogs may inspire lemmings).
[2] By "all over the world" I mean "lotsa places". I'm not interested in the specifics because research is difficult with my nose stuck to my wrist.
[3] Several sources I found vaguely state that there are over 400 species of mimosa.
[4] Loved this link which answers the question "what does mimosa smell like" with the answer saying, essentially, "I don't know, but probably good." Ah, the internet...

More reading on mimosa:
The Grumpy Gardener: Mimosa -- The Wonderful Awful Weed
Henry Holland's Six Scent Fragrance Smells Like...Sex
CASSIE ABSOLUTE (Mimosa Absolute)

Other Le Mimosa reviews:
Bois de Jasmin ~ Annick Goutal Le Mimosa : Fragrance Review 
1000 Fragrances ~ Mimosa (Annick Goutal) - new fragrance review
Perfume Shrine ~ Annick Goutal Mimosa: New Fragrance

Other mimosa-centric scents:
Aqua Allegoria Tiare Mimosa (Guerlain)
Calèche Fleurs de Méditerranée (Hermes)
Eau de Charlotte (Annick Goutal)
Farnesiana (Caron)
Mimosaique (Patricia de Nicolai)
Mimosa pour Moi (L'Artisan Parfumeur)
Mimosa (Czech & Speake)
Note: I'm sure there are more and I haven't smelled any of them, including the ones I listed. Share your favorite in the comments!

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