Penhaligon's Castile


When I was in my 20s and living in London, my friend Georgie used to make fun of me for “matching” my food. She noticed that I'd pair my Swiss Miss instant hot chocolate orange cocoa with chocolate orange candy straws, and did the same with hot chocolate mint cocoa and chocolate mint candy straws. And there was also the matter of my insisting on butterscotch sauce with butterscotch ice cream. I'd countered that the Brits were no strangers to food matching with their famous chip butty. For the blissfully uninitiated, a chip butty is a greasy pile of steak fries between two slices (or three!) of white bread. In other words, starch on starch.
"Umm...no thanks -- I just ate."
I thought of food matching for the first time in years when I smelled Penhaligon's Castile. Castile's particular charm comes from its layering of many iterations of fresh-scrubbed orange: neroli, petitgrain, bergamot, orange blossom. Talk about smell matching! The key to Castile is the interplay between all the shades of orange, and musk, which provides just enough “grrr” to bridge all that clean sunshine to the physicality of your own sweet self. Because without any contrast, you'd never know what you were smelling -- or eating -- as I discovered as my enthusiasm for food matching waned.
Castile is available from LuckyScent.com at $110 for 100 ml
See my discussion of Castile in my Seduction Scents post.

28 comments:

  1. Hi Katie

    No matchy matchy any more. How did you find Swiss Miss in London? Just curious. Never heard of Castile fragrance, only Castile soap. Always liked that. Think it was made by Knights.

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  2. Your description of a chip butty sounds absolutely vile. Lord have mercy.

    But this fragrances does not, it sounds lovely.

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  3. Catherine, come to think of it, it must've been Cadbury's, not Swiss Miss. Swiss Miss stuck in my head as the all-purpose name for instant hot chocolate.


    Nora! Mercy on us all for French fry sandwiches.

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  4. I stopped recognizing reality after the definition of the *shudder* "chip butty."

    I'm sure there was some sort of fragrance thing happening here, but....nope. Turns out I'm still in the corner, shivering uncontrollably.

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  5. Nora you have no idea! Chip Butty is heaven! ;)

    I adore Castile too. Got to smell the new Parfum d'Empire today, which is also super orangey!

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  6. Stefush, just the photo of the chip butty makes me yearn for a cold glass of water -- and a colonic.

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  7. Stefush, go to your happy place.

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  8. Katie, having never heard of a chip butty outside of Earthworm Jim, I was pretty sure it wasn't actually a real food. Thanks for the education!

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  9. Thanks to your tip off in the seduction post, I now own a bottle of this and have since spread its orangey cheer around quite a few fumie friends. And the ribbon is just such a great shade of yellow. I am woefully ignorant of difference between neroli and bergamot and petitgrain etc in terms of orange tree-related body parts, but I do know that the Tropicana note comes in the carton and pours.

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  10. Molecules, shmolecules...nice. Now I want to try this...

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  11. Haha, Vanessa! Well, let me pour you a tall glass of orangeyness: neroli = oil from the flowers of the bitter orange tree; orange flower = absolute obtained by extraction of flowers of the bitter orange tree; petitgrain (I can just hear you pronouncing it properly in your lovely French) = oil from the leaves of the bitter orange tree; bergamot = oil from the fruit peel from another variety of citrus tree, citrus bergamia, responsible for Earl Grey tea flavor.

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  12. The name 'chip butty' was frightening enough, but the picture actually made me chuckle. It looks comical. And I have to say, my youngest grandson loves to put french fries in his sandwich. Recently he carefully laid them on top of his hamburger. OK, maybe that is not so weird. What is strange is he will get a piece of bread and pile anything on his plate onto the bread. Something he learned from a family friend and something I discourage him from doing. Forks are there for a reason!

    An orange scent sounds delicious. I love wearing Hermes D'Orange Verte.

    -- ScentsofSmell

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  13. SoS - just about anything can be piled on bread, I guess. And cats, according to StuffOnMyCat website.

    Oh yes to Eau D'Orange Verte!

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  14. Yes, orange is a very happy scent, I may purchase a sample of this little gem. Perhaps as additional ammunition against seasonal affective disorder.

    Lez Nez Manoumalia (sp?)

    Beyond Paradise

    Castile

    Also, Katie, do you speak French?

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  15. Thanks for the anatomy lesson - the bitter bit was news to me. All carefully noted!

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  16. Nora, I don't speak French, but I do speak "perfume" and "ballet".

    Oh yeah, Manoumalia is a hardcore tropical marvel.

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  17. Slowly catching up with your great posts... I got a Castile tester at a store closing some time ago. I only wish it was short lived. The citrusy top is superbly pleasant, I agree. But instead of quickly fading away as all good EdC do, Castile overstays its welcome, losing the citrus and becoming more and more unpleasant as it goes. Soon, I want to scrub myself.

    Now I need to go sanitize my hands with Chanel's EdC.

    cacio

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  18. cacio - that's some fancy hand sanitizer you got there!

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  19. Have you tried Aqua Allegoria Flora Nerolia (discontinued?) This hits the same soapy chord as Castile but Guerlain style...
    ~fleurine

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  20. fleurine, I never encountered Flora Nerolia.

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  21. How does Castile compare to 4711? Dare I ask this? I love 4711 ,but, perhaps I am a plebe.
    Thanks! rachel

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    1. Rachel, it's a valid question whether posed by plebe or nobleman. 4711 is the classic eau de cologne - smells marvelous and uplifting, but just doesn't last long at all. Castile serves up a dish that will satisfy the same cravings as 4711, but the emphasis is a bit more on the sweet orange blossom than 4711's herbal festival. And it lasts longer. You'll love it.

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    2. Perfect. Thanks for the quick reply. It's on sale at Penhaligon's!

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  22. Katie,

    I understand you're in London now--I will be visiting the city this time next month and I will be stopping by Penhaligons in search of a new signature scent.

    I love your reviews so much and if you ever find the time, please do review some more Penhaligon's perfumes! I'd love to hear your thoughts on them--I'm a floral lover and would love to know what you think of elizabethan rose, violetta, gardenia, and the like.

    Enjoy your summer!

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    1. Hi Lauren, I love Elizabethan Rose, it's very similar to Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose, which is a great cross of garden-fresh and musk. I have reviewed Amaranthine here:
      http://www.katiepuckriksmells.com/2009/12/penhaligons-amaranthine.html

      My friend Georgie smells wonderful in Sartorial, even though my pen pal Dan thinks it's basically an updated Brut.

      If you're at the Covent Garden Penhaligon's be sure to stop in at L'Artisan Parfumeur nearby. Also don't miss Les Senteurs near Marble Arch, and the great selection of perfumes at Liberty.

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  23. Katie, are you still in the UK?

    --Nora

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