Perfume Pen Pals: Nez a Nez Bouche Baie and Figues et Garcons


Dan,

Now what about these Nez à Nezssss? Suddenly, there are 59 (or, to be more specific, 10) of these NàN perfumes cluttering up the counter at Scent Bar, and the volume is daunting. But I started methodically working my way through them, and bizarrely, I really like a completely fruity-tutti-sweetie one: Bouche Baie. Get a load of these crazy listed notes:

Blackcurrant, blackberry, passion fruit, orange blossom, jasmine, cherry, peach, coconut, vanilla, almond, honey

And dig this informative copy on the Nez à Nez website re Bouche Baie:

"...our berries do the Indian swim and whisper marmalade stories in a bath of flowers."

OMG -- me too!

Forget Sean John I Am King -- Bouche Baie really is the missing Harajuku Lover! It’s a Mai Tai mush from which I could not even begin to contemplate isolating individual notes, other than lollypop-marinating-in-melted-lollypop-juice accord.

At the same time, there’s a certain creamy starchiness that keeps this candy mack truck from jackknifing and spilling its cargo all over the highway. Any way you slice it, Bouche Baie smells like fruit-punch boiled sweets, but it gives you teenage kicks without the usual shrill white musk hangover.

The youth of today need to know about Bouche Baie! Bouche Baie could be their perfume hero! If only it were available in a $25 perfume oil roll-on pen at Sephora, instead of costing hundreds of bucks at ritzy-titsy boutiques.

I was making such a foofaraw over Bouche Baie that I geed-up another Scent Bar customer, an arty Chinese girl with a giant fish tattoo on her neck, to buy it, along with NàN Figues et Garçons.

Figues et Garçons was great, too: a sharp, herby fig that’s brisk and green rather than syrupy.

Katie


Katie,

That fruity/sweet Nez à Nez looks appalling on the LuckyScent website. Is there any secret ingredient that makes itself apparent when you spray it on, something that causes some friction, wrinkles some shirts, re-arranges some furniture, anything? Because its combination of ingredients makes me want to commit hara-kiri (though, admittedly, I'm a little fragile to begin with).

As for Figues et Garcons, or Figues et anything, I learned my lesson early: one fig perfume is enough and, for me, that's Diptyque Philosykos, which I never wear. Which either indicates that one fig perfume is more than enough, or that Philosykos isn't the one for me.

Either way, I don't like fig perfumes enough to find out. Though I do like fig candles. Fig is the one category of scented candle that never makes me grumpy. So it's obviously not the scent of fig I don't like, I apparently just don't like the scent of fig on my person. And there's a long list of things that falls within that category: dogs that shed, watermelon, Ernest Borgnine....

Dan

11 comments:

  1. Katie-I'm speechless. At least for now.

    Dan-watermelon? I understand dogs that shed. Although I have one, which makes me walk around all day, feeling self-conscious about the coat of tan hairs that must be sprouting off of the back of my pants. I love her anyway. Ernest Borgnine. Not so much.

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  2. melisand61: My mom has a tan dog that sheds and whenever I complain that I'm covered with fur, she tells me not to wear black. As if that's a solution!

    And I should've specified, I have an unreasonable distaste for that specific imitation watermelon-candy smell. I'd sooner slow dance with Ernest Borgnine than have that stuff near my nose.

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  3. I walk around the house with one of those evil furminator combs that is supposed to de-shed your dog within an inch of its um, skin. My dog walks around rolling her eyes at me.

    I want to see the video of you and Ernest dancing.

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  4. Katie, I have a Nez a Nez perfume on my sample wishlist right now (i know, i know... most people buy samples all the time and have a full bottle wishlist. but i... am not most people *cough*cheap*cough*).
    the one that ineterests me is Rosier Ardent, specifically for its pairing of cardamom and rose, two things i love. i also dig cumin, pepper, vetiver, cedar, and resin, so all in all it seems like a sexy match for me. did you give that one a sniff too? any thoughts?

    the perfume i regard as my alotted fruity tween scent is Eleftorea by Bourbon French Parfums (i am from louisiana). supposedly it has kiwi and grapefruit, but it's not overwhelmingly sweet or cold. i wear it when i feel sad about missing my chance to be a model because when i was young enough i'd never heard of "petite" (short) models, or sad about being too old to know about the newest booty dancing moves just by word of mouth and having to seek them out.

    i am like a parentheses superhero in this comment.
    <3
    laura

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  5. Yeah! Me too, m61! Where's that vid of Dan and Ernest swaying together to...hmmm...let's say "Cherish" by the Association. Or "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas. Or "True" by Spandau Ballet. Or "Endless Love" by Lionel Richie & Diana Ross. Or...

    melisand61, I cannot explain or defend my sudden benevolence towards candy-smelling perfume. I'm just trying to live by the Frédéric Malle Code: "Be honest with yourself about what perfumes you love." As if you could choose what you love!

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  6. Laura - don't fret about not automatically knowing the latest moves - that's what YouTube is for! And a sample wishlist is the way to go, especially when there's just so much gosh-darned stuff out there.

    I did not try Rosier Ardent, and I agree that it sounds beguiling based on the notes. Was surprised to see it compared on LuckyScent to a couple of woody/spicy Comme des Garçons, Jalsaimer and Comme des Garçons Original. I was expecting more of a Le Labo Rose 31 kind of thing.

    I'll stop speculating and put it on my sample wish list.

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  7. The Dan/Ernie dance is to True by Spandau Ballet. (Thinks about it, nods, now sure of it) Not sure whose head is on whose shoulder but I think Dan's head is on Ernie's shoulder. And Katie, Dust in the Wind? Really? Realllllly? No-one dances to Dust in the Wind.

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  8. Hey, don't Ernest and I have a say on our own song? Though I wouldn't say no to "True." Provided the mood was right. As for heads on shoulders, I'm guessing I'm at least a half-foot taller than Ernest, which I would hope disqualifies me as the head-rester.

    I suppose someone should call Mr. Borgnine now and set this up. Thursdays are good for me.

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  9. sample wish lists FTW!

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  10. Hey Dan,

    I don't get fig 'fumes either. I made my dad smell the Diptyque one and he said it smelled like a fisherman's cabin, built right on a riverbed for convenience, kinda slippery when wet, you know?

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  11. kleinzaches, I like where your dad's head is at.

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