A Semi-Rerun and a Minor Whinge

By Tom First off, it's hot. We've gotten into a Santa Ana cycle this week, For those of you who have never lived in Southern California, the Santa Ana winds (otherwise known as an off-shore flow are hot, dry winds that come down from the desert into the basin. They can down trees, power lines and my neighbors DirecTV dish. They also can exacerbate fires, and there are several going on right now. Raymond Chandler wrote of them in the story Red Wind thusly: "There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge." I happen to not mind them, since I grew up in New England where we'll take that 90's weather and add in sopping humidity that will stick around all night. But it did make me think about what scent I should wear. Actually if I was stuck on a frozen steppe about to be devoured by wild dogs part of me would be wondering what I should be wearing scent-wise, but I digress.. I came across the bottle of French Lover I bought back in the day when I was flush and gave myself a healthy spritz. Back in 2007 I wrote: "This has been compared to Guerlain Derby and it does make that same slashingly chic statement. On me the angelica takes a backseat to the vetiver: and what a vetiver! Incredibly full, it's supplanted with woods and incense and not a little musk. It also reminds me a bit of something else- somewhat as if Le Labo Vetiver and Guerlain Habit Rouge had a love child: It has the Le Laboish austere smokiness in its vetiver, but it has the swagger (the only way I can think of to put it) of Habit Rouge. Wearing it today maundering about in my paint-spattered t-shirt and old jeans, I kept getting marvelous little whiffs of it and felt distinctly underdressed. I also passed two people who visibly and enjoyably sniffed and then looked at over at unshaven me and visibly thought "Can't be him". This is the scent I would wear into a meeting with the CEO, a date with the person I wanted to marry or perhaps when being sentenced: it has a rock-ribbed patrician quality to it that's quite wonderful. Needless to say, I logged onto the Malle website and picked up a (small) bottle right away, especially since it will be renamed Bois d'Orage in the states, since it is felt that 'French Lover' would not sell as well. Well "Thunder Wood" sounds like a porn star, and I like the original name." I still feel the same way. It's still that good, and I usually dislike scents that have anything with Angelica in them. I still like the name "French Lover" better too, and am glad I got a bottle shipped from Europe back in the day, I'm bot glad that 100ML bottles are now $250 at Barney's. But I may have to try the body wash at $75. What do you wear when the heat is on? My tester was from my personally purchased bottle.  Image: Barney's.

Scents of Summer

By Tom Well, I'm a week late with talking about the summer scents that I'm looking forward to; chalk it up to lazy summer-ness.. I've talked about some of these before Aqua di Parma, Eau de Sud and Hadrien, and Hermès Eau d'Orange Vert. I've also talked about the one I'm really looking forward to wearing: Frederic Malle's French Lover. French Lover is a green, green, green rooty scent that was created to "attempt to create the ultimate man’s scent." It's all green roots and  smoky woods and a final clean muskiness. It's a very patrician smelling thing- it makes me think that if Cary Grant were somehow alive and 35 years old this is what he'd be wearing. What are reaching for for summer (winter if you're below the equator?) Let us know in the comments. French Lover is called Bois d'Orage in the US because apparently they thought we wouldn't get the joke. So we get the name that sounds translated like a porn star (Thunder Woods). It's available at Barneys in several sizes. Mine is from my bottle. Image: Wikipedia

Sort of a Rerun: Friederick Malle Eau d'Hiver

By Tom The lovely Olfacta (who I am assuming you're reading) reminded me of this one with her lovely and evocative review. My original review here on PST years ago read "Created in 2003 by Jean Claude Ellena and as sharp and clear as an icicle, D'Hiver is listed as having notes of heliotrope, iris and honey (according to Barney's). I also get bergamot in the opening and an overarching angelica. But mostly I get a sense of whiteness. Whiteness and coldness. As if you were sitting in a freshly painted white room looking out a picture window at a field of snow, perhaps with a television set in the background that's set to a station that's only static while wearing a white suit. If it weren't so lovely it would seem almost stuntish it it's whiter-than-white aspect. I love it in winter, which in LA can get into the 80's (I know, hate me), but I really like it in the heat of summer where it's as refreshing as a cool bath." I still stand by that but also after years of wearing it have to add my comments to her review "I always thought it smelled like the weather just before a big snowstorm. Crisp and clean and slightly electric and oddly warm with the promise of a really good freeze coming in." As she mentions in her review and comments, JCE is a master.. Image: Wikipedia Commons

Dries Van Noten By Frederick Malle

By Tom As I was out and about I popped into Barneys and saw a new Malle. It was developed as a tribute to  Dries Van Noten, the avant-garde Dutch Belgian (thank you commenter for the correction) fashion designer. According to the Barneys website, it's a "modern oriental evocative of classic perfumes which translate the distinctive sensuality of Dries Van Noten's world" with notes of "Sandalwood, Vanilla, Sacrasol, Patchouli, Saffron and Jasmine absolute." What's surprising about it is that it plays so close to the skin and that it is very, very simple. A woody opening and a creamy drydown that's sweet and milky. I didn't really smell patchouli, saffron or jasmine there, but to be honest I only gave it one days try. I mean, I liked it, just not enough to even beg a sample at the counter. Much like his ready-to-wear, Dries Van Noten is just not me. I'm not the avant-garde type.. Dries Van Noten is $185 for 50ML, exclusively at Barneys where I sampled. Image: Barneys

Le Parfum de Therese by Frederic Malle

If a perfume could have a face, Le Parfum de Thérèse’s would be one of those non-conforming faces described by Adorno and Horkheimer, faces that, like Greta Garbo's, do not look as if you could say "Hello sister!'' to them. Le Parfum de Thérèse was created in the early 1950s by Edmond Roudnitska for his wife Thérèse, who at that time was the only person allowed to wear it; in my mind, Le Parfum de Thérèse is associated with Greta Garbo. This perfume has Garbo’s husky voice, perfect bone structure and mesmerizing, impenetrable eyes. I file it, along with Chanel’s Bois des Iles and Guerlain’s Chamade, under the category of "Golden Perfumes”, because the image of shimmering warm gold is the one they evoke in my adoring mind. Le Parfum de Thérèse is vivid, but it is still an intimate perfume; to borrow Luca Turin’s phrase, it is full of shadowy recesses, as if illuminated by a candle (“Des parfums intimes, pleins de recoins sombres, comme éclairés à la bougie,“ from Le Guide). I would have never thought that a fragrance containing melon and jasmine could work so well on my skin, but it does; the blend is so smooth, not a single note stands out as too loud, yet the perfume keeps developing, changing from the darkly ripe fruity beginning to lovely understated green jasmine, to stunning rose, to the elegant woody- leathery drydown. “The face of Garbo is an idea”, said Roland Barthes. Le Parfum de Thérèse is Edmond Roudnitska’s concept of olfactory beauty, incandescent, ever-changing composition that is both soulful and awe-inspiring. Le Parfum de Thérèse is available from Editions de Parfum or from Barneys, $160.00 for 3,4oz.