End of the Year

A few weeks back, I ordered a couple of things, which came last week.

First, I got Serge Lutens Five O'Clock au Gingembre.  I was thinking it was close to Tea For Two.  However, they really don't resemble each other much, with the Serge being more along the lines of Daim Blond than I remember....

I was really in the mood for tea, so I also ordered Gucci Pour Homme II, which I remember being a nice tea scent.  However, I was very disappointed with it when it arrived,  It smells a lot more chemical than I remember it.  Maybe it's been reformulated.  Sadly, Gucci Pour Homme (I) is nowhere to be found. I do have a sample of that.

The Gucci bottle is kind of impressive.  You could probably kill someone with it, it's so heavy. A murder weapon in a Peckinpah film (I'm thinking of the use of the telephone at the beginning of The Naked Kiss).

From another store, I ordered a travel set of Amouage Gold Man, which was relatively cheap.  The one ounce of juice will probably last me a lifetime.  Gold still has that opening which could peel paint off a wall, but I've always liked the drydown a lot.

I also ordered Epic Man shower gel, which was really impressively packaged.  I never would think of giving someone shower gel for a gift, but the packaging is so nice I might do that in the future. I should have gotten some Christmas presents along those lines.  Now it's too late, alas, to order online in time for Christmas.

This is the bottle, which is kind of nothing special. The box, however, is very heavy, almost a piece of wood.  The box below is for Gold, but it looks similar to the Epic Man box. The colors are a bit different.

Maybe I'm easily impressed.

Got Some Things....

Following my success with Chaos and Black Cashmere, I decided to buy a bottle, blind, of Donna Karan's Fuel For Men.

Well, there you go with blind buys.  I am not so nuts about it.  It reminds me, a lot, of Baldessarini, which I do not like at all. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

I also got another pair of shoes.

They're nice, but I was expecting them to be yellower. They are comfortable, though.






Fuel for Men photo from amazon.com.
Shoe photo from Diemmefootwear.com.

Ŝuoj

I've been circling around these Vivienne Westwood PVC brogues for a long time now.  I normally hate wingtips, but I like these.

I also got these Adidas x Opening Ceremony pony hair sneakers.  I discover that pony hair doesn't come from ponies!

Happy Hallowe'en!

My usual sales assistant at Barneys, Andy, has left and is now working at Neiman Marcus.  I went to Barneys on Wednesday to see what they had of interest.  A bunch of other sales assistants swarmed all over me trying to help.  I must be a pretty lucrative customer to get so much attention.  The sales assistant I used prior to Andy, Patty, was there, and I would like her to get the commissions if she could.  She got sidetracked while the other people were all over me, so I decided to leave without getting anything. I told Patty I would come back later in the week. She said she would not be there Friday (today), so....

Yesterday, I stopped into Saks.  I wanted to try the Dior Collection Priveé.  I was able to do this, but he SA there kept trying to second guess what I liked, so I left, annoyed. I also wanted to try the Cartier Les Heures de Parfum, since they were advertised on the Saks website and there were many I have not yet smelled. Sadly, there were none of Les Heures on site.  I suppose I could have just walked a few blocks to the Cartier store. At the Saks Cartier counter, some lady sprayed me with Pasha, or some flanker of Pasha.  Whatever it was, it was a hateful woody amber, and pretty much ruined my whole day for trying anything else!

I went again to Barneys.  Well, Patty was not there.  Again, the SAs were all over me.  In loyalty to Patty, I figured I would get something that was not so expensive and save that for whenever Patty was there.  So, I got Comme des Garçons 2 Man, which I always figured I would get.

In the mad flurry to get my sale, the various SAs showered me with various samples, including Helmut Lang Cuiron, which I had been interested in trying.  I got an enormous (maybe 3 ml) sample of Serge Lutens L'Incendiaire, the new $600 for 50 ml Serge.  Very nice, but not $600 worth of nice.  At least not at this second. In its defense, it is extraît. Fortunately, the sample should last me six months or more!

Well, today is Hallowe'en. Looks crappy out.  It was snowing a bit earlier, but has stopped. I was thinking of going to Neiman's to check on Andy. I was told he is working the Creed counter.  I'm not a super Creed fan, so do not foresee Andy getting much of my business. Who knows?  Maybe I'll find some Creed I like.  I almost never voluntarily walk into Neiman's, though, and will only do so to see Andy.

Anyway, Happy Hallowe'en!





Photo from LuckyScent web site. 

Miel de Bois

Ok, yes, I did succumb and order a bell jar -- my fifth/third -- of Miel de Bois.  It arrived on Thursday.  I'm not sure if it's the way it smells dabbed versus sprayed, or just the smell of me that day, but I was getting osmanthus from it.... which I hadn't smelled from the sample.  What does this mean???!

Photo from Serge Lutens website.

New Glasses

Same as the old glasses?

New.

Old.

Meeting Sara After Work

Last night I met Sara for Barney's bag event.  I was going to order a bell jar of Miel De Bois, but Andy and Sara convinced me to get L'Artisan's Rappelle-Toi.  Although I wish I stuck to my guns, I do like the L'Artisan more than the other two semi-recent Explosions d'Emotions..... Sara got Haute Voltige.

I also had ordered Donna Karan Black Cashmere from Neimans, which finally was delivered yesterday, along with Fleurs de Citronnier from Lucky Scent.

I'm on  a diet, natch, so I sat with Sara and her friend Shannon, who always seems to show up, while they ate at Connie's, and didn't get home until fairly late (for me). I didn't sleep a whole lot today.

Fleurs d'Oranger

After circling around it for several years, I finally got a bottle of Serge Lutes Fleurs d'Oranger.  I've always kicked myself that I never got a bottle of the L'Artisan Fleur d'Oranger, but it was not ever available here when I wanted it.   Maybe one day....

Anyway, the Serge is exactly how you would think it would smell, coming from Serge.

I've also ordered Fleurs de Citronnier, since I saw LuckyScent still had the export line version available.  It hasn't been delivered yet, though. (EDIT: Dang. I see Parfum1 had it and at a lower price!)

I've really pull back on buying stuff lately, if you noticed.  A good thing.  The Fleurs d'Oranger was at a price point I was willing to pay for it.

Next week Barneys is having their seasonal bag sale.  I sorta promised this sales assistant there I would buy a bottle of Le Labo Gaiac 10.... so if one is available, I guess I'm getting that... Last year, by the time I got there, it was gone.  There is plenty of other stuff I could get.

O also ordered some samples from Surrender to Chance.  A bunch of Serges I had never smelled:  Sarrasins,  La Vierge de Fer, Santal de Mysore, and Vetiver Oriental.  I also got a (very small) sample of Shiseido's long-lost Nombre Noir which, after a brief dab, smells very perfume-y on me.





Photos from us.sergelutens.com.

My Last Pair for This Season

Iris Silver Mist

I had two Barneys gift certificates totaling around $55, so decided to use them to buy a Serge Lutens bell jar.  I figured I should get Iris Silver Mist, even though the jury is still out on it.  Everyone adores it (I'm not so sure), and I think I should own it.  Andy at Barneys called someone, who turned out to be the Beverly Hills store, and it finally was delivered Friday.

The perfume I received is actually colorless.  I was trying to compare it with L'Artisan's Iris Pallida, and don't find a huge difference.  This is my fourth bell jar, after Bornéo 1834, Muscs Koublaï Khän, and El Attarine.   Truth be told the first two are kinda fakes, as I bought decants with 15 ml in bell jars of them from The Perfumed Court, and dumped the contents of my spray bottles into them.  So, if you don't count them, this is my second bell jar.

Andy was nice enough to give me a 10 ml sample of Byredo Accord Oud and a 15  ml of L'Artisan's Prémier Figuier.  I may give them both away.  I have the Premier Figuier Extrême, which I think I like better.  Fig works weird on me.

L'Artisan had a sale today, with lots of things on sale for $15 - $28 or so.  I grabbed a bunch, including La Chasse aux Papillons body creme, Mûre et Musc body oil, shower gel, and body milk, plus a gift set of Mûre et Musc Extrême (which I kinda hate -- it smells like grape Kool Aid on me).  I told Carmon, the manager of my condo building, about the sale, and by the time she went to the site, the sale was over.  I had made my purchase the same day!

I figure I can use these for gifts throughout the year.

EDIT:  The Mûre et Musc Extrême gift set did not come.  I wrote to L'Artisan and, unfortunately, they were out of them.  They gave me a 20% off voucher code, which I thought was nice, and will refund the amount for the set.  I gave my sister the dry body oil (I was at her house for dinner tonight [July 3]) and the Premier Figuier 15 ml.



Photo from SergeLutens.com. 

靴

Sales! Sales! Sales!

Barneys annual sale is on.  I got a lot of really good deals last year.   There are some things I'd like to get, and they are either too pricey still or out of my size.  The prices do tend to gradually drop.  So I'm watching everything pretty much every day.

Other sites seem to be having big sales as well.  I got these shoes from Saks:

They're Adidas partnered with Opening Ceremony.   I wore them to work today! For new shoes they were pretty comfortable.

EDIT:  I liked these so much I ordered another pair, in red.  The price had gone down further at Saks, too!                                                                                                                                        



Photo from Saks Fifth Avenue.

Bedelia du Maurier

Among the surprises of Hannibal's season finale.... Hannibal on a plane to Europe with Bedelia du Maurier.... yikes!

It's kind of funny that Gillian Anderson appears time to time on this show.  In the pilot of The X-Files, Dana Scully pretty much was a copy of Clarice Starling.

Anyway a great season finale.

Laine de Verre

Serge Lutens was/is selling their recent Laine de Verre marked down on their own web site.  Is it selling that poorly?  Anyway, I took advantage of it.   Not sure I like it, but it is kind of interesting.

Photo from Grain de Musc.

I've Been Getting a Lot, Lately

Sunday I went to Barneys.  I figured I would get something, since I haven't been there since the bag event.  There was something going on and if you spent $250 you got a $25 gift card.  So, I got Frédéric Malle Une Fleur de Cassie, 50 ml, which I had been meaning to get for a while.  Last year when Mr. Malle came to Barneys I almost got it, but it smelled sour on me.... I ended up getting a candle, which I gave to my sister for Christmas.  I'm sure she didn't care that it was signed by Mr. Malle.... But candles are lost on me.  But I digress.

This may be an odd choice right when the weather is warming up.... There was nothing else there that grabbed me. The SA talking to me (Andy was off) was pushing Le Labo on me and, well, no thanks.

I also ordered Serge Lutens L'Eau Froide, 100 ml, and it finally was delivered today. The price was half off on Amazon, and I figured, why not?  It is stronger than L'Eau Serge Lutens, but doesn't have that interesting ironing board note.

I think I'll chill out for a bit.. at least until my credit cards are paid off.

Ashley who worked the L'Artisan stuff at Barneys is no longer there.... There is someone new named Bonnie, whom I haven't met.

Vitriol d'Œillet

I got a tester of Serge Lutens Vitriol d'Œillet.  The opening kind of reminds me of Un Lys.  I thought it might be ok for  the summer, but Un Lys tends to get kind of cloying in the heat.  I'll give it a try anyway.

I, of course do not have this bottle, dang.




Photo from Perfume Shrine.

A couple things more

A week or so ago, I got a few things.  I got Hermès Eau de Mandarine Ambrée.

In the same order I got Christian Dior Eau Sauvage Fraîcheur Cuir.

I just got back from four days in the LA area.  I visited my father, who lives in Dana Point.  Actually, his address is Capo Beach, which he dismisses, and says it is Dana Point.  His view off his back porch is this:

His house in San Clemente was nicer as a house. I think he and Barbara bought this house for this view.  I'm tempted to say it's worth it. So it goes living in a gated community.

I visited my friend Ricardo in LA after visiting my father.  I got him to take me to the Scent Bar, since I had never been.  We were the only customers, and there were two very nice and knowledgeable female sales assistants.  I ended up getting Naomi Goodsir Bois d'Ascèse.

A almost got Neela Vermeire Creations Ashoka, but didn't want to spend that kind of money.  It's beautiful, though.

More Shoes, Perfumes....

I got these Converse plimsolls --- as opposed to sneakers... hmmmm.

They feel kind of narrow.  I wore them to work today.  My feet were really sore when I got home.  Maybe it's just because they are new.

I got État Libre d'Orange La Fin du Monde, 50 ml.  Which I like.

Also, the reissue of L'Artisan's Jour de Fête, 100 ml.

That Mall Smell!

I ordered Bentley For Men Intense blind, based on a bunch of super positive reviews.  The boys at Basenotes went wowie over this, saying it smelled so niche for a designer scent. What they hell were they thinking???

It smells so designer.  The smell of the shopping mall.  The smell of numerous pullouts in fashion magazines.  Maybe a little added pepper. It wasn't so ridiculously priced, at least, on Amazon.

Nice bottle.


UDATE:

It does smell much better hours later on the drydown. But at the beginning and for several hours it has that horrible generic ambery-woody smell.

Cheapies

I got a couple of old cheapies this week.

Back in the '90s, Yasutaka used to wear this, and I started to wear it and wore it exclusively for several years .  It's been discontinued, but Fragrancenet had it on sale, so I bought it:  Dunhill Edition.

The opening is harsher than I remember. This may have to do that it is old, and the top notes have gone.  We will see if I still like it.  The bottles I had back then were splash bottles, and I dabbed.  This bottle is only a spray. I think Zino took over as the main thing I wore some time in the '90s.

My second cheapie is Oscar de la Renta Pour Lui. Back when I first joined Basenotes in 2009, a few more senior members got together and gave a bunch of samples to new members, and I was one of the lucky ones.  AromiErotici sent me, among some other things, Oscar Pour Lui.  It just smelled so gorgeous at the time.  I remember spraying my sample in front of my mother and she just smiled. I went through the sample pretty quickly, and oddly never got a bottle, until now.

We shall see if I still like it.  Also, if I remember correctly, the sample was vintage.  This is no doubt a reformulation. (It was only like $20.)  So it may smell completely different.  [EDIT:  I ended up giving this to Junior, who sits next to me at work.  I'll have to get my own bottle at a later date.]

The other two bottles I ordered were backups:  L'Artisan Parfumeur Bois Farine (100 ml -- news is out that it is being discontinued).  The bottle I already had was 50 ml.   I was afraid I might run out if it is gone.   The second backup is Annick Goutal Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille.  I heard this might be discontinued as well, which is just weird, since it was just released a few years ago. If Janet likes it, I may give her one of the bottles.  But I really love it.  Both of these bottles were very much discounted.


Dunhill Edition photo from Ozmoz.
Oscar Pour Lui photo from Fragrantica. 

Congratulations!

My niece, Julia, who, since graduating Juilliard, hasn't gotten a job other than freelance, has been named Principal Harp at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach.  I guess it starts in the fall, and continues for three years. She was just told today.  I'm glad for her.

Iris Nazarena

Barneys had their semiannual bag event, which ended yesterday  I met Sara for lunch, and she  brought her friend Shannon again... so the three of us headed over to Barneys.

Sara bought makeup... I got Aedes de Venustas Iris Nazarena.

A few weeks ago, I got these shoes.  I've been kind of embarrassed about getting them.   They were super expensive, although what I paid was $600 less than their selling price. I'm also not sure about when I would have the chance of wearing them.   Well, here they are:

I guess Alexander McQueen put out a bunch of things with this motif for last fall.  I like the suits with the stained glass.  I'm not sure about wearing a whole outfit with the design, though.  For me, just the shoes are good.. I wouldn't want to overdo it.  The women's dresses and purses, though look nice.  A scarf might work, too, for either men or women.  But I am happy with the shoes.

When I first saw the shoes, I kept thinking of a scene in the movie, Performance,  towards the beginning, when James Fox, as a gangster, is trying to rent a room in reclusive rock star Mick Jagger's house to escape police and other gangsters.  Mick Jagger is saying he doesn't want any tenants.  James Fox is smoking a cigarette, and an ash falls to the floor, atop an oriental rug.  Mick tells Fox, that rug is 200 years old.  Fox  just says, "Valuable antique, is it?"  Anyway, when I saw the shoes, the  image from the film of the ashes falling to the rug kept coming to my head.

Tons

I bought a couple of things in the past week.

Last week I ordered some decants from Surrender to Chance:  Mono di Orio Les Nombres d'Or Oud, 3 ml. I didn't get a whole lot of oud from it and from a quick sniff it smells very perfumey.   Armani Privé Bois d'Encens, 5 ml -- I'm a bit disappointed.  The three Guerlain Les Déserts d'Orient,  Encens Mythique d’Orient, Rose Nacrée du Désert, and Songe d’un Bois d’Éte, each 1.5 ml.   I've only smelled the last so far.   It reminded me of L'Artisan's Al Oudh.  Annick Goutal Eau du Fier, 8 ml, since a full bottle seems unlikely. Finally, Serge Lutens Miel de Bois, 2 ml, just to see what the brouhaha was all about.

I also ordered a couple of things from Luckyscent.  First, Phaedon Grisens was over half off, so I got that.

I also got CB I Hate Perfume Burning Leaves, which I had been meaning to get for a long time.  It was much sweeter than I remember.

If you ordered more than $100 of stuff, you could add a code enabling you to receive a 20-piece surprise sample pack (see Luckyscent Gifts with Purchase in the drop down menu).  I'm kind of impressed with what they sent:  Amouage Ciel Man; Maison Francis Kurkdjian Oud and Lumière Noire pour Femme; Lubin Gin Fizz and Black Jade; Parfums Nicolai Eau d'Été and Patchouli Intense; Juliette Has a Gun Mad Madame and Romantina; Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Ambre Précieux; Parfums Delrae Coup de Foudre and Bois du Paradise; Diptyque Tam Dao edt and Philosykos edp; Serge Lutens Serge Noire; By Kilian Liaisons  Dangereuses, Flower of Immortality, and Love and Tears; Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine, 1889: Moulin Rouge, and Tubéreuse 2: Virginale; Profumum Antico Caruso; Costes; and finally, 10 Corso Como.  Some of these I already had samples of, but a lot I really didn't, and several I would never have even asked to try.... so it is exposing me to some I wouldn't otherwise look at.  Most of these were manufacturer's samples.

Anyway, as  you can see, I have a lot of sniffing to do.

New Year

I'm on vacation for two weeks.  Naoki was here, so I probably won't go to Japan.  He'll be busy  with work every day if I go.  There is a holiday on the 13th, so he may have a three-day weekend.  Anyway, I am still deciding.  The weather has been bad out east, so loads on planes to Japan from here have been pretty bad.  Maybe it would clear up.

It's been snowing here since New Year's Eve.  I slipped and fell crossing the street on the first.  My knee is kinda sore, but I don't think anything was seriously hurt.

Right after Christmas I bought these boots.  Yet another pair of Palladiums:

They're wool flannel on the outside, and the lining is leather.  They are really warm, but take me a bit of time to get on.  I'm not used to wearing high-tops.  But if I am only going out for a bit I won't put them on. Hence, I slipped.   Anyway, I like the boots.  They also have good traction.  They were a collaboration with designer Richard Chai.  They kind of remind me of these German wool army pants we used to wear in the '80s.

Today I went to Barneys and bought  D.S. and Durga's Spirit of the Glen from the Hylnds series.  It's supposed to smell like The Glenlivet scotch.  Andy had been trying to get me to buy it last time I was there, but I felt it would be queer (in the junior high school sense) to get a perfume with my name on it.  Also, I was afraid it smelled too much of vanilla extract. But I've decided I like it.  It was kind o pricey, though.  My first purchase of the year.

Palladium photo from freshnessmag.com.
Spirit of the Glen photo from Barneys New York.