This 'n That...

By Tom First off, the winner of the drawing for the Roxana Illuminated Perfumes is... Flora! Please let me know your address and I will send them out.. We had rain here in LA for the first time in about a hundred years. The crazy, histrionic downpours (complete with thunder and lightning, very very frightening indeed..) that we get out here, usually a little later in the year. Since I was in West Hollywood, walking, I ducked into ScentBar. Chergui has arrived there, so those of you who have been despairing of finding it at Barneys take note. There were two new Lubins there, L de Lubin, which is a handsome blend of flowers and citrus and could easily become a favorite at $124 for 100ML. Perhaps not for the first "cold" day of the year though.. There was also Nuit de Longchamp, which my friend said smelled like a classic scent from the 30's and apparently it is; it's a gorgeous floral chypre in the Hitchcock Blonde mold. There are hidden depths there and a fair bit of darkness; at $134 for 100ML isn't that the new free? Oh, and I love the voluptuous new bottles with the tortie tops. Gorgeous! Of course, all of Vero Kern's fragrances were there as well, yummy things that they are... I've decided I was on crack when I said I would leave onda to the ladies. It's waaaay to nice on me not to indulge. I just need to up the ante on the social occasions: this is a Night at the Opera scent. Maybe a Presenting an Oscar scent. My friend liked kiki a lot and thought the packaging uber-cute.. Shiloh was there, which for some reason I've never tried? Why is that? On my skin it's a delicious peppery citrus backed by woods, clean musk and sandalwood that manages to keep the citrus for hours, which in my book is a very good thing indeed. Could be necessary.. I'd like to round this out by writing "I smelled (X) and it stunk" so I seem even-handed but I, and it didn't. This is what I grabbed, and for once it was all good. On a sad note it seems that All Purpose, the men's clothing store that carried some CB I Hate Perfume scents seems to be defunct. Too bad: the owners were nice people who had come great stuff. I can only hope that they have only abandoned brick-and-mortar and gone cyber. Le Labo's LA scent will debut at the end of this month, and while I am under no fond notion that I am special enough to get to try it early, I'll be nose to the door upon it's release. I hope that "dark core of sin" lives up to my hopes..