Trance Essence Perfumes

By Tom I am constantly kind of floored at the number of people who are cooking up perfumes these days. In my opinion they're the true future of scent; as everyone from LVMH to apparently Dow-Corning are gobbling up venerable old houses perhaps it's time to draw the veil on our old loves. People like Janna Sheehan make us able to face that future with a smile. Working out of beautiful Ojai, California, Sheehan has six scents: Abbey Rose: described as "London in the sixties" it has the ying of grapefuit and bergamot against the yang of rose, fig and neroli. It's a great rose; the ones that Caron used to to but apparently stopped.. Whyte Rabitt: "Down a rabbit hole" with linden, banana, basil and blackberry balanced with marigold. I surprised myself by really liking this one: it's sparkling in the way that Patou Cocktail is, and that's a good thing. Genie in a Bottle: written of as "A sultry Moroccan nightclub in the summer" it has jasmine, frankincense, vanilla, chocolate, black tea and black pepper. I want to snark "and a partridge in a pear tree", but it's beautifully done. It's not in-your-face like a Lutens, but it's quite sultry in its own right. Chen-XI: "A Chinese mandarin garden at dawn" lists ginger, mandarin, lemongrass spearmint and lily. Oddly I find this one the most calming and "zen" of the scents- odd because citruses are supposed to be stimulating. One whiff of this and I think my blood pressure dropped 10 points.. Hail Merri: "An Indiana forest after a rain shower" according to the description, and if it's true I'm moving. It's all bergamot and oakmoss with a delightful touch of sweet pea. There's not nearly enough sweet pea fragrances in the world in my opinion, its contrapuntal appearance here makes this one my hands-down favorite of the line. Pink Kat: is "The gardenia and rose garden from a childhood story", all innocent white flowers with a little something extra. It's a little Lolita around the edges. I like it, but I don't think I could pull it off. But I know quite a few ladies who could... $103 for 60ML spray perfume or $52 for 1/8OZ roll-on perfume oil Available at their website, at Bigelow Chemists in Greenwich Village or at the store Coutula on Abbott Kinney in Venice, CA (where I experienced them; this street is fast becoming the street of scents at the beach) Image source, tranceessence.com