A New York state of mind: Bond No. 9's New York Oud and a prize draw

By Beth I fell in love with New York City at a very young age. My parents traveled to New York at least 4 times a year and because I was the youngest I always got to go with them. My parents owned a spectacular jewelry and gift store in Cleveland , Ohio and we made these trips so that we could replenish our gift stocks. I loved those times…. we’d usually work all day, but sometimes we’d sneak away and the three of us would go walking around the city hand in hand for hours, maybe catch an exhibit at the Met and just completely enjoy the fashionably gritty vibe of one of the most original cities in the world . After a bit of shopping and a trip to the original Godiva Chocolate store for me, we would climb into a cab and go off to have a marvelous dinner, a little dancing and sometimes a carriage ride through Central Park late into the evening. My mother who was really a New Yorker at heart always insisted that we dress for dinner and we rarely ate before 8:00. These were pretty heady experiences for a child but I was an 8 year old who longed to be Eloise at The Plaza and I loved every one of them. Fortunately for me she also insisted that we stay at The St. Regis Hotel, a masterpiece of the gilded age located since the turn of the century at Number 2, East 55th and 5th Avenue. The St. Regis was at that time the winter home of Salvador Dali and his fabulous ocelot. It was and is still impossibly gorgeous, but I’ve always been very sure that the presence of the magnificent surrealist was the main reason that she always chose to stay there. Often I’d sit and wait for Dali to descend the grand staircase into the lobby. He had the most amazing flamboyant style which was so very appropriate for the beautiful surroundings that he was living in. You never knew when he was going to appear but when he did it was always worth the wait. He met my adoring gaze only once but in that moment my life changed forever. He was so completely in charge of his surroundings that the room would fall silent. He smelled of Arabian incense and exotic far away lands. I was enchanted by his lavish costumes and the ocelot beside him on his leash; elegant and almost obscenely beautiful. I still dream of that ocelot...I can still see his eyes. I have always wondered what it would feel like to walk the streets of New York City with a creature like that moving silently and stealthily alongside, a barely domesticated yet completely loyal companion. Every thing about New York for me is a thoroughly incredible experience and when I am there I am acutely aware of every sight, every sound, every smell. No other city can move me to tears in an instant because I so adore it because NYC is a symphony of heady experiences all blended together in a way that’s completely confusing to my senses. Where else can you have your heart broken in an instant by the solitary glance of a strangely exotic man yet find yourself flirting with the beautiful boy who sold you a steaming bag full of fragrantly roasted chestnuts only moments later. Where else can you mournfully light candles at one of the most gorgeous cathedrals in the world and seconds later be happily trying on lipstick at Henri Bendels? New York City turns me inside out, rearranges all of my molecules and never sends me home the same woman that I was when I arrived. I have searched for a very long time to find a perfume that could remind me of the New York of my past , present and future. That’s a difficult task for any fragrance, because my New York is made up of a million faceted impressions, many of them conflicting, all of them sensually charged, sparkling and potent. My New York City is a gregarious animal, completely playful by day, only to become passionate and erotically charged when night falls. Then, there’s dusk in that magical city. I haven’t figured out exactly what happens during dusk in New York but it seems to be the switch that transforms the city from a bustling center of commerce to a decadent playground by night. MIx one perfect martini on the rooftop loft of the Gansevoort Hotel with one perfect man while watching the sun set over the stunning views of the Hudson river and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Not shaken…definitely stirred. Then there’s that very romantic moment when we finally get back to the hotel and my husband smiles and slowly removes his tie. Tell me…how could one fragrance possibly capture all of those moments for me? About 3 weeks ago I met Bond 9’s extraordinary new fragrance, the utterly fabulous New York Oud. Simply one of the sexiest Ouds that I’ve ever smelled, I knew instantly that I’d found it. New York Oud still amazes me every time I put it on. By day it’s direct, sophisticated and when I spray it lightly through my hair and along the hem of my skirt becomes a perfect accessory for whatever adventure lies ahead! The initial blast of plum, saffron and orange provide some fun and if you can actually describe an Oud as refreshing, this one definitely is. It’s as easy to wear with classic Ralph Lauren as it is to enjoy with generous strands of pearls and your mothers vintage Chanel. It can be almost interpreted as down right ladylike. You’ll notice that I said “almost” because this Oud is only pretending to be very well behaved. However you’ll need to be prepared because by nightfall it will have morphed into a smoky panther of a perfume that is prepared to stalk, hunt and capture. By the time that the last ray of sun will have disappeared over the NYC skyline, the patchouli, Oud , orris and sumptuous roses will have come out to dance and seduce with sheer erotic abandon. By the time you get past midnight the very last part of this unusual perfume will have emerged. It is romantic and soft with a buttery quality than makes my heart melt and my husband just a little bit weak in the knees. It is honey and musk with a bit of vetiver to add a touch of raw earthiness to what will certainly become a night to remember. The spell lingers til morning , still romantic and softly honeyed by the light of the day. I don’t know how they did it, but the alchemists at Bond 9 are brilliant and I’ll never be without a bottle of New York Oud. They have captured the New York of my past, captivated me with thoughts of the present and filled me with a sense of adventure for what is yet to come. Who knows? That may even include an ocelot……. I have four fabulous samples to give away courtesy of Raphaella, mistress of the Bond No. 9 Blog. Just let me know in your comments that I’ve wet your appetite and you’d like to be entered into the drawing! The draw is now closed. New York Oud is available at www.bondno9.com and all of the Bond No. 9 boutiques.

Brooklyn by Bond No 9: Perfume Review

I am no expert on Brooklyn the borough, apart from a vague notion of it being a Russian Diaspora neighborhood, so I will just choose to rely on Bond No 9's cultural, demographic and real estate experts in their description of Brooklyn as a home to "a new generation of artistic émigrés". Apparently, "this is where the artists and musicians choose to move. It’s home to graffiti-ists [thus the bottle], gaffers, and key grips, to web designers and aspiring editors. This is where fashion stylists live. New York-bound hip-and-cool Seattle-ites prefer to move to Brooklyn; smart Stockholmers book their hotel rooms here."( from the press release) Is Brooklyn the perfume hip-and-cool enough to evoke the artistic and happening borough? Perhaps in a sense that it is not classically masculine nor reminiscent of any older perfume, apart from, vaguely, Bond No 9's own fairly recent West Broadway. This kind of unisexy, understated, non-macho masculinity is the fashion of the moment, so in that sense, I suppose, the scent is in fact trendy. I said it before and I will say it again, I do like a lot this non-obvious, quiet, shall I say, "sensitive" masculine tendency. I also like when scents for men utilize traditionally feminine notes, like fruits, which I for some reason keep smelling in the top notes of Brooklyn. I would swear there are apples here...or rather, given the fizzy juniper note and sparkly grapefruit, some kind of apple cocktail. And boozy scents are invariably a hit with me. As are leathery one; and Brooklyn has that in spades in its base. Dry, spicy leather amplified by the woody-leathery guaiac note. I would not go anywhere near as far as Bond No. 9 people and claim that Brooklyn is "on the cutting-edge of perfumery". There is cutting edge, there is Brooklyn and there are many stops on the 5 express train separating the two. But it is a handsome, elegant, versatile and very wearable (for both genders) fragrance. Available in March at Bond No. 9’s boutiques and Saks, $145.00-$220.00.

Perfume Review: Bond No 9 Andy Warhol Lexington Avenue...and a prize draw

Lexington Avenue, the third perfume in Bond No 9's Andy Warhol series, was introduced in time for the artist's (a fellow Leo's) birthday. The name refers to Warhol's pre-Pop years in 1950s New York, during which he was making a name for himself as a commercial artist-illustrator and had quite a thing for shoes. His shoes were"portraits without a face", "objects of desire." (source) Bond No 9's new release is meant to "link two of the most ultra-feminine commodities a woman can own: fragrance and footwear". (source - Bond press release) The link would not be obvious unless you knew the background story about Warhol's Lexington years. What I mean is... one sort of expects that a fragrance that has something, even indirectly, to do with shoes and comes in a bottle decorated with shoes would smell of leather. Having said that, if Andy Warhol's larger than life illustrations came to life, they would not smell like any ordinary shoes but would instead indeed waft aromas of crème brûlée, cardamom and almonds. The top notes of Lexington Ave. have a strangely churchy smell on my skin...dry-woody and vaguely incensey (blue cypress?). Add to that the sweet and piquant accord of fennel, cardamom and almonds, and what we have is an image of a sinful feast inside a place of worship. As the fragrance progresses, neither the balsamic/spiritual nor the gourmand/self-indulgent sides seem to be able to dominate each other, instead making each other much more interesting than they would were the perfume only woody or only gourmand... and making me think of that passage in The Master and Margarita in which Woland asks Matthew Levy, "what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?"... The base of Lexington Avenue is sandalwood-heavy, and, mixed with the aforementioned crème brûlée, iris and patchouli, the sweet wood creates a lacquered-box effect which makes the new Warhol fragrance somewhat reminiscent of Chinatown (as others have already noted). What I would have loved is even more patchouli to make the scent darker...but then of course I am patchouli-mad at the moment, and perhaps an overdose of this dark, earthy note would have tipped the good-evil balance and ruined the harmony (it also would have probably made Lex Ave too similar to Silver Factory, my favorite in the series). Lexington Ave will be a wonderful comfort scent during cold days, which are, let's face it, right around the corner, and I think I might need a bottle. Andy Warhol Lexington Avenue will be available in September at Bond No 9 boutiques and Saks, $135.00-$195.00. If you would like to enter the prize draw for samples of Lexington Ave, Union Sq (the 2nd Warhol scent) and Love in Black, please say so in you comment. Two winners will be chosen at random and announced on Monday.

Perfume Review. Roses and Vanilla: Rochas Tocade and Bond No. 9 Broadway Nite

Today’s review is for two scents blending rose and vanilla, a combination I adore. Obviously, rose and vanilla are not the only notes in either of these fragrances; Tocade has a very noticeable magnolia note and Broadway Nite is quite heavy on violet and what I perceive to be geranium. Still, to my nose and on my skin, rose and vanilla are the core ingredients of Tocade and Broadway Nite. However, despite the shared notes and despite the fact that both were created by Maurice Roucel (the nose behind Musc Ravageur, 24 Faubourg and many others), Tocade and Broadway Nite could not be more different. It is as if, having been given the task of creating a rose scent for Bond No.9, Monsieur Roucel went back to Tocade and made it more heady and generally glammed it up, creating a gorgeous, capricious, pampered diva out of a sweet, lovely, pretty house-maker. Tocade is a soft comfort scent, unobtrusive enough to be worn in any environment, lovely before bedtime. It starts with a blend of rose, magnolia and vanilla on my skin, the magnolia note wears off quite soon and, till the drydown comes, Tocade is mostly rose and vanilla on me. In the drydown, rose becomes much less evident and amber joins the mix, adding its sweet warmth to the scent and bringing it up a notch on the comfort scale. This is not a glamorous fragrance, it stays very close to the skin and, unless you really over-spray, is likely to go more or less unnoticed by others. It is however guaranteed to bring a smile of contentment on your face whenever you catch its floral-gourmand aroma. Broadway Nite is a different story altogether. It is a bombshell, glamorous, heady, with a luxurious trail of sillage. It would not tolerate being worn with your coziest sweater, wrapped up in a favorite old blanket, reading a book. Broadway Nite demands to be taken out on the town; don’t dare to put it on unless you are dressed très chic, with your heels very high. I heard Broadway Nite being compared to Lipstick Rose by Frederic Malle and I can see the similarity in that both mix rose and violet, however where Lipstick Rose is powdery, soft, and warm, Broadway Nite is aldehydic and dazzling, and, despite the fact that it has vanilla and amber in the drydown, it strikes me as a “cold” scent. To compare it to Tocade, the rose note is much more loud and prominent in Broadway Nite and stays very noticeable in the drydown. There is a certain green-ish quality to this scent that is probably due to the mentioned violet note, honeysuckle and iris. I could have sworn there was geranium in the blend as well, Broadway Nite has that sharpness I associate with this note, but, for what it’s worth, it is not on the official list of ingredients. Broadway Nite is a heady, demanding scent and does not always work on my skin; once in a while it throws a tantrum and becomes very harsh and cloying; it is not full bottle worthy for me. Tocade, on the other hand, gets worn often and is always even-tempered, soft and comforting; I will be definitely buying a bottle. Broadway Nite can be found in Bond No. 9 boutiques or online, for example at Beautycafe.com, and costs $110.00- $178.00. Tocade retails for as little as $21.69, at Scentiments.com *The photo of Maurice Roucel is from Editions de Parfums, and is here mainly because, on this particular picture, the perfumer looks remarkably like my father, only with a more luxurious moustache :-)

Chinatown by Bond No. 9

You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain; I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care. As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown, I have a world apart that is not among men. Li Bai Described as an “intoxicating cross-cultural bouquet” (description remarkable for its mixture of habitual perfume-related vocabulary and sociological lingo), Chinatown has the notes of peach blossom, bergamot, gardenia, tuberose, peony, orange blossom, patchouli, cedar, vanilla, sandalwood, cardamom and Guaiac wood. In reality, it is neither particularly “intoxicating” nor a “bouquet”, to my nose (I am not paying much attention the “cross-cultural”, simply because all perfumes can be labeled with this term, if only for the fact that their ingredients usually originate from rather diverse places). Chinatown is a soft gourmand scent, smooth and comforting. It reminds me of Laura Tonatto’s Plaisir in a sense that both these perfumes have the same creamy, gentle feel to them, with the notes merging in perfect harmony, without a single note being particularly identifiable at any given stage of the fragrance development. I like to think that I am able to smell peach blossom in the beginning, but perhaps I am just imagining it. Gardenia and tuberose are very discrete, if not non-existent, to my nose, as are peony and patchouli. Cardamom is just about discernible, vanilla is very low-key and only bergamot is easy to pin point when it shows up here and there adding some liveliness and sparkle to the composition. Chinatown is a comfortably linear scent in a sense that all the notes appear simultaneously and stay together till the very drydown. The description on Hampton Court site notes the way the drydown of Chinatown smells of Chinese lacquered boxes and I find that to be absolutely true. I only ever owned one lacquered trinket box and it was Russian, not Chinese, but it did smell exactly like the combination of sandalwood, cedar and cardamom in the drydown of Chinatown. If this sounds rather “chemical” and artificial to you, it really is not. The blend is very smooth here, the whole composition and each its note is muted, softened and rounded. Chinatown is, as of right now, the only Bond No 9 scent that I like enough to want a full bottle (and what a bottle!), and it is going to be one of my “comfort scents” this fall and winter. Available in Bond No 9 stores or online from, among other places, Lusciouscargo, $110.00 for 1,7oz.

Coffee Scents: A Story with a Happy Ending

Contender No. 1. Hippie Latte: Comme des Garcons Series 7: Sweet – Wood Coffee Notes: cardamom, liquorice, chinese ginger, almond, coffee essence, wood, indonesian patchouli, vanilla. Wood Coffee was the first coffee scent I tried, and, it being Comme des Garcons, I expected something striking. Alas, I was disappointed. I did not encounter much wood, and even though there was plenty of coffee, it was not the coffee of the Turkish proverb, "black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." Rather, Wood Coffee is a diluted, cold latte and I don't mean intentionally cold as in some fancy Starbucks creation, but rather as in “forgotten in a mug and gone cold and stale”. To make the matters worse, in the drydown, patchouli reared its ugly head demoting Wood Coffee from the status of unremarkable to almost unwearable. Contender No. 2. Politically Correct: Jo Malone – Black Vetyver Café Notes: coffee, vetiver, temple incense and sequoia. Black Vetyver Café was allegedly born from Jo Malone’s passion to create the perfect coffee note. I have a passion to find a perfect coffee scent, so there seemed to be a great chance that I would love this. And I don’t dislike it, but…as Ernest Hemingway said, “But did thee feel the earth move?” I did not. This is a big improvement on the stale, cold, patchouli leaden Wood Coffe. However, if, like me, you a crave a rich, dark, sensual coffee scent, this is not it. Black Vetyver cafe is a very neutral fragrance, civilized, elegant, appropriate anywhere...It is very wearable and actually even full-bottle worthy for me, but…this is not It. Contender No. 3. “The Spirit of the Unexpected”: Bond No 9 – New Haarlem Notes: coffee, vanilla, patchouli. How I love the beginning of this fragrance. It is dark, sexy, sweet and very recognizably “coffee”. Very hip, very sophisticated, and, at that point, very wearable. Unfortunately, that is not where the story ends. Memories evoked by scents can be a wonderful thing and enhance one’s love for a new fragrance; they also can be a curse. In this case it is not a bad memory that New Haarlem brings to mind, it is simply that, sometime during the drydown, the scent becomes, to my nose, a fragrance a person from my past used to wear, and I simply cannot get over that and enjoy New Haarlem. I feel that I am wearing another person’s skin so to say. The scent it reminded me of is Route 66, created in 1995 by Coty, which, for those unfamiliar with it, is a tobacco-woody-ambery fragrance. Damn be the tricks of olfactory memory. Memories aside, a masculine cologne drydown is simply not among the characteristic a coffee scent has to possess, in order to come close to the ideal I have in mind. Contender No. 4. Holy Grail Alert! Dawn Spencer Hurwitz – Coffee Absolut Notes: coffee absolute. Wowza! My search for a perfect coffee scent ends here (for now, that is, since a perfumista's job is never done). It is hard to imagine that there can be anything more coffee-like, apart from the coffee itself. From the dark colour of the liquid to the incredible scent, this is it, black, strong and sweet. I don’t know how she did it, the notes on her site don't disclose much, but DSH somehow created that elusive ideal coffee scent I was looking for. Wood Coffee? Purleeze! Black Vetyver Café? Laughable. New Haarlem? Sorry, not even close. A side note for other incorrigible layerers out there. I accidentally layered Coffee Absolut with Bourbon French Romanov (a sweet rose scent) and the result is incredible, I have a feeling this DSH creation would bring a certain stunning dark undertone to many a scent. Know of more coffee scents? Please send your recommendations!