This 'N That: Strange Invisible Perfumes Essence of IX, Comme des Garçons Series 1: Leaves Lily

By Tom This weekend I was out and about with no-one to play with. So what did I do? I sniffed perfume, naturally. That and I looked at the iPad. Saturday was a trip to Venice to try the new SIP, Essence of IX. It's a lovely thing that opens with bright blackberries and rose that's inspired by a napa winery. Sadly it sort of died on me, but I'm not sure that isn't the fault of the testers being EdP spray strength while the actual product is pure perfume. But since they didn't have testers of the actual strength (nor did they have samples or offer to make one) I can only judge by the spritz on my wrist. Well, that's money towards my car insurance. Easter Sunday was a trip to the Grove to take a look at the iPad. If you wish you can read more about that at my blog since I ramble enough here.. Scentbar was open on that Easter Sunday so I stopped in. I had a lovely conversation with the nice young man about various things and he told me that he had heard that the Leaves series of Comme des Garçons most likely was going away. Since I had never bought a bottle of Lily and there was one left in the store I felt I had to: Lily of the Valley is one of my all time favorite smells, and this one is a literal take on my childhood memories of it. It grew wild in patches in the shade of the Maple trees ringing my New England childhood home- trees that were at the time very old and whose shade made sure that our house was always about 20 degrees cooler on a hot summer day and provided a riot of color in fall (as well as endless raking..). It was such a lovely scent that for the few weeks they bloomed we would mow around them. Comme des Garçons take on it adds in the grass clippings and a fair bit of soil. It's almost exactly like laying in that new mown lawn in that dappled shade, or at least my memory of it more than a quarter century old. At $82 dollars (and the last one in the store) I bought. Later having coffee I did feel the earthquake in Baja and it was a reminder to keep vigilant. Coincidentally, it's earthquake preparedness month in Beverly Hills, and there's an emergency preparedness list at the city website. While all of you don't live where there might be a quake, it's actually a pretty good idea to keep some of this on hand if you live in an area that floods or snows or tornadoes or hurricanes. In other words, everywhere Essence of IX is available at their $320 for .25 oz. Lily is still listed as available at Luckyscent.