Perfume Pen Pals: Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese



Katie,

My Frédéric Malle Le Parfum de Thérèse arrived and, I must say, I've been quite pleased with my recent reckless purchases. Especially these Malles. My frame of reference on classic chypres is narrow, and I've never tried Diorella, but to me Le Parfum de Thérèse smells similar to the MDCI chypres, a little less peachy, a little more jasmine-y, but equally complex and feminine. Plus, it was a little more than one-third the price of the MDCIs, so bonus points all around.

Although reflecting on our bit about people wearing perfumes intended for the opposite sex, I wonder how many of my perfumes will be made obsolete the moment I settle in with one woman. Because I don't imagine any woman would want me smelling like Rita Hayworth. And I wouldn't blame her.

Rita Hayworth smells like Dan Rolleri.

I suppose we can split my collection and she can wear the feminine ones. Unless she's like an ex of mine, who only wore torn t-shirts and (occasionally) Bulgari Black.

I'm always attracted to the smart sarcastic girls until I realize the smart sarcastic girls don't dress well nor do they like nice perfumes. But by then it's too late and another spell of existential depression has set in. Maybe I'll just keep my Le Parfum de Thérèse and stay single.


Dan



Dan,

Ha-ha, "Rita Hayworth.” Yes, you probably do smell like a bombshell, when all is said and done.

Regarding "when good girls like bad -- or no -- perfumes", you'll just have to cross that girlfriend/perfume bridge when you get to it. Ms. Right might not share your evolved olfactory taste. I know someone who had a boyfriend who was a gourmet chef, and she was driven by his relentlessly rarefied tastes to sneaking out of the house for secret McDonald's feasts.

Katie



Katie,

I don't much care if a woman likes the things I like (in fact, it's nice to have certain things just to yourself), but it's more of an overall disposition of opposition (and that's a mouthful) to those things that's problematic. There's a difference between passing interest and aggressive disinterest and my torn t-shirts girlfriend came to be aggressively disinterested in me.

Dan

26 comments:

  1. Hey, I might be smart, for sure sarcastic and I dress nicely and love perfumes! There is hope!

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  2. Dan, could this be a regional thing? I know plenty of smart, sarcastic, attractive women who live in the DC to Boston I-95 corridor. I think that the weather triggers the sarcasm reflex.

    Many of them would be just fine if you wore Parfum de Therese. Of course, my friends do skew a little toward the open-minded. They would be perfectly happy if you showed up in a big white floral like Kilian Beyond Love.

    But I do have one other question. Are these women just smart and sarcastic, or do they also have, um, other not-so-nice traits? The phrases "aggressive disinterest" and "disposition of opposition" remind me of the men I dated in years gone by. They could have worn my Chanel No 5 and the situation wouldn't have changed one bit.

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  3. Good comments, M61! I never thought of the weather being the trigger for the sarcasm gene. The weather can be a bit overbearing here, right?

    But good looking out on the possibility of Dan's girl friends having other traits that perhaps cause the relationship to fail. I think Dan is due a trip to the East Coast so we can introduce him to some East Coast women! Now that would be interesting!

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  4. M61: I think it is a regional thing. California therapists must have different priorities because we've all been taught to believe maintaining a positive attitude is paramount, while sarcasm is an unevolved response. Which is easy enough when you haven't lived through a humid East Coast summer.

    As for the women, ScentsofSmell, they're all fine and lovely and any suggestion of shortcomings by me is out of line. Do I prefer East Coast women? Absolutely. Would I suffer even a few days of stifling humidity to date one? Absolutely not. Another example of misguided California priorities?

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  5. Stifling humidity, snowstorms that turn out cars into mobile-igloos. Who wouldn't be sarcastic? Even with a generally good nature. But we get to wear all kinds of great boots and sweaters. Kinda evens out our occasionally caustic humor. And they go great with our cozy, resinous winter scents.

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  6. Dan, I think you've dated like, fifty billion women in your lifetime.

    Melisa, Kym, ScentofSmell, where are you from?

    I think that having an open-mind and an active interest in almost anything makes for an enjoyable person to be around because you have opinions and lots to say, regardless of whom your latest heaven in a bottle was designed for.

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  7. Nora -- 50 billion is an absurd exaggeration. It's probably closer to 50 million.

    Three cheers for curiosity and open minds!

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  8. Nora, DC area but family is from NY, so I've inherited a large amount of that particular genetic material.

    Dan. Work toward 60 million. It rolls very nicely off of the tongue.

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  9. I'd love a boyfriend who smelled like Rita Hayworth, but I also think that only a real man can rock a floral. If I ever meet a single straight dude who wears Carnal Flower or Ysatis, I'll have to take to mah faintin' couch.

    Dan-- what do you think of Therese? I've plowed through two samples because I love it so much: that fruity-on-the-verge-of-rotten, the peppery top, the shimmering golden leathery drydown, oh so perfect! I just wish it lasted longer on me, it's mostly gone after 3 three hours.

    I think you'd like Diorella; it has a similar ripe fruit thingy balanced with savory that's strange and beautiful. The comparison with Vietnamese cuisine is fitting-- salty, fresh green, ripe fruit, warm spice, pickled-- all happy and content and no one fighting.

    Heidi

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  10. Agreed, Heidi - I think Dan would go for Diorella, too. Diorella is the perfected Therese.

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  11. melisa--a friend of mine went to college in DC and loved it. Your town is rockin'.

    Anonymous--ha ha! I'll have to check out Diorella.

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  12. Heidi, I adore Le Parfum de Therese. It puts me in the mind of an opulent summer, the French Riviera, the early pages of "Tender is the Night" perhaps, before all the drinking and turbulence. "Fruity on the verge of rotten" describes it perfectly: it's almost TOO opulent and we should be grateful that it fades after a few hours lest it overwhelms us and all hell breaks loose.

    I love big classic florals but I suspect me wearing them is only a placeholder until I find a great audacious woman to take all the bottles away from me. In the meantime, it's Diorella and roasted chicken for one.

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  13. Nora, I am in Northern Virginia, but always stumble over the "where are you from" question. I usually say I was born in Virginia, but since I moved around as a kid and young adult thanks to military father, then military husband, I don't claim any place as my hometown. So I don't necessarily feel like a Virginian but seem to have spent most of my life here. I am always perusing the map to see where I should move next!

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  14. Dan, since you prefer East Coast women, but wouldn't move here to meet one, maybe the solution is for you to meet a transplanted East Coast woman out there!

    Although, that sort of sounds like if you were on fire, you wouldn't cross the street for a glass of water. I don't think it is misguided priorities - I think it is more of a mindset. I definitely have noticed a difference in points of view as one moves around the country. And until you have exhausted the 60 million women of California (uh, that came out wrong...) there is no need to leave the State!

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  15. I am detecting a dangerous prejudicial slant against women from Los Angeles? ...what a quandary: you hate LA women and love NY women, but refuse to live in NY, so you're left to hate any woman that you date in LA. Ladies, this is what single women in Los Angeles have to deal with. Is it any wonder we're sarcastic???

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  16. Nora - I'm from Los Angeles, to answer your question. I love your reply, but have to say in my own personal experience, I have found that men don't really like women to have opinions in this part of the world (I think Dan calls this sarcastic, but I'm not being sarcastic). One can dream, though...(I think Dan would call this sarcastic, but in fact it is hopeful - a positive attitude, if you will...)

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  17. I'll jump in here, Kym, to clarify that Dan most emphatically does not hate LA women - or indeed any women - and that he doesn't live in LA (he's a Northern California guy.) And smart sarcastic girls are A-1 in his book, for what it's worth. It was his shrink who said sarcasm was unevolved, not Dan. No dangerous prejudicial slants to be detected here....

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  18. Thanks for clearing that up, Katie.

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  19. For what it is worth, my comments were pure playful sarcasm and never intended as anything but. I am sure Dan enjoys the company of women regardless of where they are from and I never inferred from the comments made that he disliked women. I think it was all in jest.

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  20. So, do any of you ladies like wearing fragrances designed for men?

    There's something very comforting to me about doing so, like wearing an over-sized, cuddly sweater. Although sometimes I feel like I want to get pretty again and knock it off with the masculines.

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  21. ScentofSmell--Virginia is beautiful! My family ancestry on my dad's side mostly lived there as early as the mid 1700s and then migrated west. I'd love to explore it more.

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  22. Nora, I used to wear a bit of Fahrenheit...

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  23. Oh, really? Tim must have good taste then.

    I like Declaration by Cartier.

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  24. Nora, yes, VA is beautiful. I wish I felt more connected to it. But many places are nice.

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  25. Kym I am from California too and I've found men here to be curious, engaged and pretty great.

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