Katie,
Lately I'm just wearing a bunch of lavenders and eau de colognes. Which makes me feel guilty because, jeez, why do I own so many damn perfumes if I'm perfectly fine wearing a simple lavender every day?
Maybe it's like those people who have to buy a big fat house before they realize they never wanted a big fat house. Except I always hate those people. They're so self-congratulatory about their stupid newfound life wisdom.
I blind-bought the original Anat Fritz, which is no longer in production. It's just lavender, cedar, sandalwood and patchouli, spare but also edgy and rough. Have you ever sampled it?
Dan
Dan,
I knew nothing of Anat Fritz. Which I keep reading as "Anal Fizz." But “thanks” for sending a decant.
Anat Fritz smells like an ashtray into which Great Aunt Molly has discretely spat her half-sucked Wint O Green Lifesaver.
 |
| Great Aunt Molly, mid-Wint O Green. |
Oh wait -- it's calmed down. Now it smells like the dried mineral deposit under an intermittently leaky sink located in a shed in the Mojave Desert.
Stop wearing this.
Katie
Katie,
“Leaky sink in a shed in the Mojave Desert” sounds great! Better than the perfume smells, I think. I knew you’d hate this one, unless you loved it, which also wouldn’t have surprised me. But don’t worry, I stop wearing everything, even the good stuff. There are so many bottles in my house!
Look, KP -- the perfume you’d ordered me to stop wearing was named the 490th Greatest Modern Perfume!*
I’m wearing it again this morning and while I can’t abide by the first part of your commentary (one, Great Aunt Molly doesn’t smoke and, two, I don’t even have a Great Aunt Molly), the second part is eerily precise.
The original Anat Fritz really does smell like some rusty sink in a long-abandoned shed near some old mining town, not like Calico, which has been turned into a corny tourist destination that probably employs someone just to check for leaks, but more like Ballarat, where these guys...
...likely left the faucet on 75 years ago and nobody noticed. I don’t think a negative comment has ever made me like a perfume as much yours has. Thanks!
(Though I just went on vacation and, as usual, brought only a cologne -- Chanel Eau de Cologne -- and a lavender -- Czech & Speake Oxford & Cambridge -- and, as usual, I recognized that this was all I really required. Why do I have so many bottles of perfume? I need to get rid of most of them before I die or it’s going to be so embarrassing.)
Dan
*by Basenotes so...y’know...whatever
P.S. This will ruin the leaky-faucet theory, but apparently Ballarat has no water. I learned this while researching the above photo and finding out the fellow on the left, Seldom Seen Slim, was a prospector who’d moved to Ballarat between 1914-1917, after everyone else had skipped town, and stayed there until his death in 1968, living in all of the town’s abandoned buildings. For most of those years he was the Ballarat’s sole resident and because there was no water (or electricity), he had to travel 30 miles just to take a bath. Which he did once a year, earning himself the second nickname “Seldom Clean Slim.”
Find the reformulated Anat Fritz, now called "Classical", at LuckyScent.com
Welcome back, I miss you guys.
ReplyDeleteGlad to be back, D5750!
DeleteDan, where did you find the original? ebay?
ReplyDeleteI was just telling KP that I don't remember (this PPP is from...awhile ago), but I think it was from a seller on Basenotes.
DeleteTruth be said, I've never been wearing the fragrance. What I know is too much lavender, sandalwood and patchouli. To sum up judgements I've heard - it's like a terrible tale for very small children, an aggressive fragrance, like a smile of the witch Baba Jaga going to roast a child and eat him appetizingly.
ReplyDeleteAgain, Slyfox, every poor response makes me like it even more. Try describing Bleu in such vivid terms. You can't do it. (But you're right, Anat Fritz does err on the side of "too much.")
DeleteHey guys, welcome back. Have either of you tried Guerlain's Heritage? Sparkly Lavender (I imagine a champagne bottle being uncorked) on top of Cedar, patchouli, vanilla, and sandalwood. Smells either old fashioned or timeless , depending on your angle. I fall on the timeless side.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark! It's been a while since I visited Heritage. Your description makes it sound like it's on a lower branch of the family tree with Anat Fritz.
Deletehey Dan thanks once again for making me shop so I can smell like a mineral deposit. :) Katie we so miss you. Please come back to YOUTUBE. xo Michael and Mirabelle
ReplyDeleteMichael you dear one, I know I've teased before about scaring up some new YT videos, but now I've actually planned some out and will be shooting them soon...
DeleteWoohoo, great news! Looking forward to those Katie! :)
DeleteYAH! can't wait to see you shining as you do..:)
ReplyDeleteYey!! You're back, this is excellent :) :) :)
ReplyDeleteMiles of smiles, Yasmine!
Deletecan't wait for you to come back to Youtube, waiting for you to review Chanel no 5 l'eau
ReplyDeleteGood call. I've a sample of that on hand, on my "to do" list.
DeleteI know that nothing lasts forever, but I hoped that the widespread love of plain ol' Chanel No. 5--not flankers--would be the exception to that.
DeleteI scored a bottle a few years ago, and wearing it makes me feel beautiful. Every time I put it on, it's like a surprise. It's easy to get tired of things that we once consider great, but with No. 5, I somehow never do
My fave incarnation is the pure parfum, with the bigger emphasis on ylang ylang. I dab some on when I'm at the Chanel counter, but just don't feel it's credibly "me" enough to commit to a whole bottle. I do love it, though.
DeleteHey Katie
ReplyDeleteThink I saw you on the tube earlier this week on the Piccadilly line. You looked lovely.
Well that's good to hear! You should've said hi.
DeleteI got giggles reading this post. Now, for better or for worse, I really want to get a sniff of Anal Fizz. (I'm creative by nature, but I find myself surprised to have composed the previous sentence in this lifetime, as though Anal Fizz would be something to pique the imagination.) I have worked in real estate in Texas and I have a yen for fixer-uppers, so I've smelled the very dank-old-dusty-rock type smell you described, suffused with the tang of corroding metal of some flavor.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see posts in this hallowed place again.
With your experience, you would certainly "get" Anat Fritz!
DeleteI'm wearing Amouage Man Silver today and smell rather suave and romantic. I would love a touch more metal, with some gasoline, for my inner lumberjack (I do have one, though I'm a middle-aged woman--gasp! the shock of typing that!). If Anal Fizz isn't the answer, what is?
ReplyDeleteWell, Hanamini, considering this version of Anat Fritz is discontinued, let’s hope it’s not the answer. Comme des Garcons Garage is somehow both the most literal and most wearable version of a gasoline fragrance but that, too, is long discontinued.
DeleteI’d try typing “gasoline” into the KP Smells search bar, but I wouldn’t try typing “metal” because I just typed both and only “gasoline” gave some good results.
Thank you, Dan! I did as you suggested, and went on a massive sample jag (Black Tourmaline, Fuel for Men, Nostalgia, etc.), of which I now await the fallout. I never got on with Bulgari Black ("ecoeurant" is the word that came to mind), and I've not felt drawn to trying the "Metal" fragrance launched by Judas Priest's former guitarist that Google returned. Thanks to you and Katie and your commenters, I will soon have enough diesel, wood, and turpentine to keep me happy. When I'm not sniffing my beloved roses and orange blossoms.
DeleteI'm so happy you're back, Ms Puckrik.
ReplyDeleteThanks, mister!
DeleteWhy do you have so many bottles of perfume, Dan? I don't know. Why do I want perfumes that sound nasty?
ReplyDelete"Anat Fritz smells like an ashtray into which Great Aunt Molly has discretely spat her half-sucked Wint O Green Lifesaver."
I WANT THIS.
Dan, I have a friend whose dad recently died. He was a well-respected ornithologist who lived in a trailer because really, all he cared about was birds. Seriously. In his tiny trailer he had cleverly concealed over 1,000 books. Where did he keep them? I told my friend (who was tasked with finding homes for these books) that it must have been like exploring the home of an alcoholic, only instead of empty bottles, she was finding books in very strange places. Behind curtains! Under couches! Open up the microwave only to be surprised by a tome on bald eagles!
Is that you with your fragrances? Have you hollowed out every single book you own so that it becomes a hiding place for your secret shame?
Probably.
Nora, I think having a secret collection of anything encourages one to think about death, about how it will be received, how it might change people’s perceptions and, of course, how it’ll all eventually get distributed or discarded. Maybe in concealing all those books, your friend’s dad deliberately invested in them added meaning.
DeleteMost of my books are displayed proudly, whereas my perfume is tucked into a dark corner of my loft, a place unseen by visitors unless they’re invited up there. Which is usually determined not by the visitor but by my capacity at that moment for justifying all of it when someone inevitably asks, “Why?"
I’m moving soon and my new home will include…wait for it…a perfume room. I’m working with designers and I was a little sheepish when I first told them about it. But I’ve decided to embrace and not conceal, so when I die, there will be no surprises. Unless I develop some new obsession...
omg, I stumbled on this blog because a friend of mine has a strong odor of MOTH BALLS and it turns out it's Escentric Molecule something or other. So two things: 1. social advice, please. How do I tell this person that the scent she apparently has become nose-deaf to smells like my grandmother's attic on a hot day, and 2. I'm still chuckling at my desk on a dark snowy day at everyone wishing they could smell Anal Fizz. Gotta say, shouldn't be that hard... ;)
ReplyDeleteleahbee, be direct, but sweet about it. I'd frame my condemnation in a white lie like "I think I've changed my mind about your perfume. I *was* on board with it, but now I don't think it lives up to you. It doesn't deserve you!" After that flourish, get into the nitty gritty of it reminding you of moth balls. You'll be doing the friend a public service.
DeleteThis reminds me of the time a stranger sitting next to me at a concert commented on my perfume, wondering mildly if I was wearing tea tree oil. ARRGH! I was wearing Patchouli by Santa Maria Novella, which is stern and handsome, but yes, decidedly medicinal. I took the note and henceforth applied less.
Good to read your posts again! I've kept away because I lost my sense of smell(!) for about a year and a half, but I notice that you have been away at times as well. Kinda makes me feel better that I haven't fallen so far behind.
ReplyDeleteA bad sinus infection left me unable to smell even bleach :( Luckily I still had a sense of taste. Now I am recovering. I hope for a full recovery and I look forward to watching new Youtube vids!
<3
Melissa, I am relieved for you that you are regaining your sense of smell. I can't imagine how frustrating and demoralizing it's been for you. x
DeleteI enjoy wearing a manly type of smell. This sounds delicious. Right now I wear today Amber and Lavendar Jo Malone, but tomorrow as revenge against a Pink Sugar smelling co worker will be Secretions Magnifique. Take that smell of goats, monkeys, strippers and dog feet and put in your pipe.
ReplyDeleteHaha - smell harassment! (Or as the Japanese call it, "sume-hara".)
Delete