Bois des Iles

    

 Thanksgiving could not have been more idyllic for those of us in Houston than it was today.  Weather was gorgeous.  Upper 50’s, clear blue skies and even a few colored leaves here and there.  My family managed to all congregate together around a delicious menu developed from various gourmet style recipes (even featured chestnuts) and I made one kick ass pumpkin pie.  Oh my god, it was delightful.  I use a nut filling on the bottom spiked with some brandy and ginger, topped with fresh pumpkin (not from the can) mixed with heavy cream, dash of brandy and spices.  Wine was flowing with conversation and followed with great coffee.  The Princess knocked out after a good walk in the cold air and we all spread to various parts of the house to read or vegtate or went onto the next Thanksgiving venue.  I even looked decent in family pictures this year.  The King and I found a nice quiet nook outside to grab a blanket and a book to read together.  (Actually, I made that part up as DH was away on business.  However, had he been here, that’s what we would have done) There is something sweetly sexy about being read to by the one you love.  Tommorrow, I will be hit by a bus.

I thought long and hard about my outfit today, and even harder about my perfume choice.  To go with my wine colored wool pants and fitted cream wool sweater (cinched with a tortise-y belt.  I cinch damn near everything these days after losing all 60 lbs of the baby weight) and a wine paisley pashimna scarfy thing. Brown leather gloves and big Mary-Kate Olsen sunglasses for the outdoors with low heeled pointed brown shoes.  lots of toe and chest cleavage.  for Perfume, I wanted something as rich and volutptuously automnal as I felt today.  Chanel Bois des Iles seemed like the perfect choice. 

  The first spray always makes me question my choice as I always get a cirtusy,dry woodsy smell.  Much too fresh or so I think until a few minutes later I smell light sweetness of florals glowing with a hint of spice.  Glowing being the operative word, as it’s a subtle warm emanation, smelling like my skin but better.  Almost as though I brushed my wrist against a kitchen counter top dusted with gingerbread spices.  However, the effect is most often not a gourmand foody smell, but more of a homey sexy smell.  These light spices melt pefectly into the vanilla sandalwood base finishing a stunning composition.  If this perfume could give an auric color it would be deep golds, warm wines and a hint of chestnut brown.  It’s a walk in cool, crisp air and then a warm seat by the fire.  Ernest Beaux, creator of this magic elxir, was a true genius.  He managed to create a season’s colors, cooking and pastime with this fragrance. 

Edt can be a bit sharper, particularily in the cool blast at the begining, but it gives (me) more silliage and lasting power than the Parfum.  However the parfum’s advantage is a smoother, warmer perfection one must get close to smell, taking Coco Chanel’s advice to put perfume where one want’s to be kissed to heart.  However, wearing this subtle sexy scent, one is likely to be in for more than kisses. 

The sexualty of this perfume is not in knock you over the head heady florals or animalic musky dirty girlness.  Bois des Iles instead amplifies your skin’s smell and makes it over with an autumn palatte.  It is perfection for Thanksgiving, for walks in crisp air, tweed pencil skirts, wool pants and cashmere.  It’s an invite to snuggle closer under a blanket or to nuzzle a neck in passing.  While some perfumes are merely sexy in a fake-boobs-taut-tummy-stilletto sort of way, this one is erotic in a soulmate with soft curves, little bit of well loved round belly and barefeet with perfectly pedicured toes.  Plus a bit of a trustfund.  Somehow, most Chanel’s smell well monied to me.  This is certainly one masterpiece I could never get through fall without. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday.  What did you all wear today?

notes: aldehydes, coriander, bergamot, neroli, peach, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris, ylang-ylang, vetiver, sandalwood, benzoin, vanilla and musk

thanksgiving

Things I am thankful for

1.  my good health and more importantly the good health of the princess.  so many babies have so many problems and I truly have a perfect child

2. friends and family who love and support me, inspite of my wackiness and my obsessive perfume addiction

3. Chanel is NOT going to discontinue Bois des Iles (next post) or Cuir de Russie parfums.  They are, however making it very very hard to get a bottle or parfum. You must call and beg for a big honking bottle or settle for a smaller, decant.

4. Ebay.  I was able to find something very very VERY hard to find this weekend!  Parfum Sacre extrait.  finally.  Something you MUST smell before you die if you even kinda sorta like Parfum Sacre in EDT or EDP.  and yes, I will decant some of it at cost.  (I really paid for this one.  yikes)  When I get it I will put it in the decant list. 

5.  Other perfume blogs that enable me to research my yearnings and find new lemmings.  And make some wonderful friends along the way

   Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there.  I hope you spent it with those you love around a bountiful table.  Otherwise, I hope you were able to leave early and hit KFC on the way home. 

a little organization, if you please!

As I am packing a care package to a perfume pen pal, I realize I have soooo many samples and bottles, it’s ridiculous.  No wonder I can’t sit down regularly and post, I have too much to choose from and it makes me scatterbrained.  Thus, A decision was made.  From now on, I will try to cover about two perfume houses at a time, covering until my current collection of said house has run out.  Now, here and there there maybe and off topic house if love or loathe comes to visit, but I will do my best to stay on subject matter. 

The Holiday Season is here, which to me means Chanel and Caron.  These houses are luxurious, and very quality focused.  They don’t often reformulate like some certain others (glaring at Guerlain who F%$*ed with my Mitsouko and others.  GROWL).   Thier perfumes tend to be deeper, a wee bit dark in some places and celebrational.  Very appropriate for the season, and I think most of the perfumes live for cooler weather.  (Can someone send some cold to HOUSTON PLEASE?!?!?)    Plus, how can you do Christmas without Nuit de Noel?  Sooooo….look for your Caron favorites and Chanel lusties here, my dear three readers.  Make suggestions, ask questions, share your own Caron and Chanel stories.  Hell, Contact me with a comment if you want to post your own piece and we will rig it up.  So, until a wee bit later, ta-ta, I’m off to the perfumed court to fill in my chanel/caron perfume gaps.  We must be complete!

Coco Mademoiselle, a story of lust, betrayal, redemption and reconciliation

Back in 2001, I was sort of out on my own for the first time and getting to know myself as the grown up girl I was to become.  Naturally, I need a new perfume for this transformation.  For months I sniffed at everything.  Chanel no 5 was tooo grown up, the offerings at the mall shops too young.  Spurred by thier uber sexy ad campaign, I felt the need to try Coco Mademoiselle.  It seemed to encapsulate everything, or everyone, rather, I wanted to be.  Sexy, desireable, yet independant.  The ads had my name all over them and we flirted via magazine until I made the first move at the Ulta.  In a testing frenzy, I sprayed myself with several candidates. saving Mademoiselle for last.  Unfortunately, the nose was overloaded, and I couldn’t detect a thing.  So I went home alone.

What I didn’t know was what that little spritz of Mademoiselle would do to me. Being a smart girl I had diagrammed where I had spritzed things.  most of the stuff I sprayed wasn’t lasting or fulfilling  Mademoiselle, however satisfied me completely.  Over the next few waking hours and all night, she rocked my olfactory world.  While I missed the opening citrus in the melange of other scents, I was hit hard with the floral, feminine heart.  Rose, Jasmine.  How can you get more womanly than that in a perfume?  The way these were presented in particular, were the perfume equivilant to Mae West’s walking wiggle.  Fun, flirty, feminine and forward.  However, the part that really slayed me was the morning after. 

The next morning, I donned my favorite sweater (from the day before) and smelled something irresistable.  Like a cat to catnip I was madly sniffing the sleeve of my sweater wondering what the hell could that possibly be???  The smell was so deliciously dirty and almost masculine. My nose was so busy sniffing my wrist and sweater, you would think I had dusted it with coke. a cola 😉  As soon as I could tear myself away from myself I made haste to Ulta to make an honest woman of myself with my very own bottle.

For years the affair was hot.  We’d do it anytime, anywhere with no regard to propriety.  30 spritzes in the 100 degree heat, oh spank me because I’m bad!  People, particulairly men, could tell I was a woman in love, and would flock to me, telling me how divine/sexy/utterly f-able I smelled.  Actually I only tolerated the last comment from those who I was,  well, you know.  Otherwise they were purse-bitch slapped for thier forward impertinence. I digress.  Truly, as perfume can elevate your state of being, I felt like I was a sex goddess with all the benefits. 

But all good things come to an end.  Our affair must have begun to cool when I noticed our relationship was only exclusive on my side.  Mademoiselle was out with others.  While I never expected an fidelity with such a hot number, I didn’t think Mademoiselle would be quite so…loose.  Soon I noticed everyone from my hairdresser to my brother’s girlfriend we all seeing my Mademoiselle and I began to become jaded with her.  The smell once so tantalizing and elevating became like the too loud laugh of a too painted hooker.  It was a painful thing to break off, but I did and began to see others. 

In the interim, as I have been exploring all the other fish in the sea, I have learned about perfume; what goes into a perfect compostion, what notes truly sing for me and which ones to avoid like the plague.  I have also discovered that I am not the marrying kind, at least not right now and have several perfumes I use regularily, and many flirtations and one nighters on the side.  Thus, I have forgiven Madamoiselle, and now understand she was a stunning work.  In a land of insipid fruity florals, celeb stank and stuff marketed for the olfactory retarded, she stood out as a remarkable chypre, harkening to the old days when perfume was meant to shock and arouse, not to mask and make excuses for innocence long past.  (looking at you bath and bodyworks.) It is not any wonder that she was spread about the town, she was daring in our modern times. 

Now, once in awhile I pull my bottle out of my drawer, take a sniff with a bit of reverence.  Coco Mademoiselle made me a woman.

 Notes Orange, Bergamot, Grapefruit, Litchi, Rose, Jasmine, Patchouli, Vetiver, Vanilla, Musk 

Keira looks tres mignon ici!

What was your first perfume love?  Do you still wear it?  Why or Why not?

Drawing!

Well, I feel kinda weird drawing from a choice of two, so if it’s alright with you ladies, I’ll divide the samples between you.  They were in 1.5 ml’s so that’s a pretty good amount to split up for a test-spray.  What do you think, Kim and Jen?  I’ll also grab a few bits of candy out of the jar for you too!