And thanks to my butterfingered clumsiness, the Beauty and the Dirt office will never stop smelling of Aromatics Elixir. Hoo boy. I did manage to snag the gorgeous Aromatics 40th anniversary bottle and solid perfume, which makes me very happy. Especially the solid perfume, which delivers a muted version of AE's full orchestration.
Shooting from the Lip
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Perfumes: The A-Z Guide
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What the Nose Knows
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Aroma
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The Emperor of Scent
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The Perfect Scent
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A Natural History of the Senses
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The Secret of Scent
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Essence and Alchemy
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Love Chloe, while nice, could actually do with a posh understated version, and it looks as though you have found it! No 8 definitely sounds as though it has got my name - and number - on it. : - )
ReplyDeleteVanessa, No. 8 apparently is the "Hong Kong" perfume, but I don't really know what that refers to: the person who originally commissioned it, or an olfactory tribute to the city? All I care about is that it fascinates me.
ReplyDeleteThis video makes me want to give KK and Aromatics Elixir a second chance, especially the "magical forest" description of the latter, which I had kind of dismissed because it reminded me of root beer.
ReplyDeleteGreat video! Are the credits supposed to be like that?
ReplyDeleteKatie, N°8 is "the Hong Kong" one because it's exclusively sold in Hong Kong, that is all! No need to get one's olfactory bulb in a twist trying to figure out any extra connections... It's definitely one of the loveliest of the series.
ReplyDeleteHaha, Brian - I noticed the "credits" too - guess they didn't enter names in the fields, but I like how weirdly arty they look.
ReplyDeleteDenyse, thanks for untwisting my olfactory bulb with that info. It was getting bunchy and uncomfortable.
Nora, root beer doesn't enter into my Aromatic Elixir contemplations. There are so many full-on root beers out there for me: things like Goutal's Myrrhe Ardente, fr'instance.
ReplyDeleteMy nose is just plain crazy. I smelled Love, Chloe again today, and my first impression...still pickles. But in a nice way.
ReplyDeleteNo 8 is lovely, elegant and understated. The kind of perfume that I thoroughly admire and rarely wear. But I have a bottle so wear it I do! Which must be very nice for my husband, who gets a break from my usual, um, less-than-understated fragrances.
ReplyDeletemelisand61, where did you get your No. 8 - at a shop or online? Curious to know the distribution of it. Re it being more understated than what you usually go for, that's true, but I think you and I are responding to some muffled, thick intimacy that lurks in those sheer layers of iris and wisp.
ReplyDeleteKatie, I was so curious about this one that I couldn't wait. So I ponied up and used the services of a fragrance mule who got it at one of the L'Artisan boutiques in Paris. Four of the Mon Numeros are available on the L'Artisan US website now and #10 is at Barneys in NYC. So far, I've tried #1 (a pretty little thing), #6 (fascinating but "difficult" for me), #8 (my fav) and #10 (excellent, but skews a little masculine for me).
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting impatiently for #7, which is supposedly a tuberose/jasmine/chai tea/spice number. Numbers 3, 4 and 7 say "coming this autumn" on the website. Distribution has been slow and dicey for all of these. But the quality has been better than many new releases.
m61, I thought #10 was going to be "my number", what with the advertised incense and amber, but it hasn't hit the spot for me the way #8 has. I actually find #10 not too masculine, but rather a little too sweet.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness you could read between the lines and know that #8 would work for you. It's so hard to tell - your intuition certainly paid off.
Right, so I have a sample of No 8 on order (also No 6, as that sounded quite pleasant), plus I have now caught up with Bottega Veneta at last and it is every bit as breathtakingly soft and lovely as I had hoped from all the reviews. How fantastic that you met the man himself in Paris!
ReplyDeleteI know I am a flittersniffer and all that malarkey but I think I may have found my signature scent, were I ever to be so self-denying as to assign myself such a thing. This expresses everything I keep banging on about about the style of scent I like!
Vanessa! Are you saying we've found a hole in which to pop your peg, so to speak? Triumph! (And I like your characterization of a signature scent as "self denying".)
ReplyDeleteI'm still sort of reeling from no 8. I tried it yesterday due to the generosity and perfume-camaraderie of Ms. Puckrik, whom I bumped into while perfume shopping. A celebrity sighting! No 8 starts with an iris root so carrot-seedy that the two notes actually seem distinct. They converge slowly and a throaty, rich iris-dominated floral picture comes into focus. Just into the heart, whammo! An exceedingly strong, exceedingly gorgeous soapy note grabs the wheel. (I kind of wondered about Katie's "shower day plus one" comment at this point.) Soon, in a convincing juxtaposition, a musky, ripe, body scent starts creeping through the soap and brings back the root-like, almost mucky feel of the iris/carrot seed bit. While not similar in scent, no 8 captures that clean over dirty intimacy that is the heart of Amouage Gold Man. I've only smelled it on a strip, but where most perfumes are a statement, or perhaps a simple question, no 8 is more like an argument, an assertion, and I'm completely persuaded. I’m certain I’d have the urge to nuzzle up to anybody wearing this.
ReplyDeleteDamn you and your word power, jtd! You got all that off the blotter? Thanks for rendering my upcoming review of No. 8 "surplus to requirements" with your accurate assessment.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I was kicking myself after running into you at Scent Bar for not asking Scent Bar Steve to decant samples of my Numero 8 and Miller Harris La Fumee for you. But it seems that with your bloodhound nose, the blotter was good enough for you.
I don't think it's so much my nose as this perfume. There's so much going on in there. And successfully! It's really impressive. Thanks again for the chat and the smells. Really liked the Miller Harris, btw. Makes a real warm spot between woody/incense and culinary herbs--an interesting and oddly unexplored territory. You asked me yesterday about perfume and working in a hospital. One of the handful of scents that works there is MH's Terre de Bois. I think the vetiver née eau de cologne reads as soapy/botanical/'natural.' That and the general MH soft-spokenness makes it pleasantly non-threatening. In the more pleasantly threatening category, I also love to wear White Linen to work.
ReplyDeletejtd, you can't get more perfect for a hospital than a perfume called "White Linen"!
ReplyDeleteHI KATIE, HOW ARE YOU. I WILL GO TO LONDON AFTER FEW DAYS, I WANT TO BUY ALLURING AND SEXY PERFUMES. I DONT KNOW TOO MANY PERFUME BRANDS. CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT PERFUMES DO YOU LIKE THERE AND THANK YOU.
ReplyDeleteAnna, the best advice I can give you is to visit some of London's wonderful perfume shops and let the sales associates guide you to the scents that make you go "wow!". Here are some of my favorite shops in London:
ReplyDeleteLiberty (perfume department)
Les Senteurs
Miller Harris
L'Artisan Parfumeur
Ormonde Jayne