general perfume articles: 94 posts

The beginning of my interest in fragrance coincided more or less with a momentous year in perfumery:  1981.  It was in that first year of what would later be called the Big Eighties that a Beverly Hills boutique released an eponymous scent housed in a box with yellow stripes that evoked the store’s awning. Giorgio was an immediate and a ubiquitous smash, a powerhouse floral so outsized that restaurants were said to refuse seating to Giorgio-wearing patrons.

Giorgio was only the beginning of what would prove to be the last era of “big” perfumes.  By the time super-scents Calvin Klein Obsession and Dior Poison were released in 1985, women were already wafting KL and Vanderbilt (1982), Ungaro Diva and Yves Saint Laurent Paris (1983), Chanel Coco, Paloma Picasso Mon Parfum, and Forever Krystle (1984).

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“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Although Mark Twain never actually uttered this phrase famously attributed to him, had he spent the summer in Belgium, he would surely have come up with a quip along these lines. What do you think of when you hear about Belgium? Beer, chocolate, rain, Hercule Poirot? I haven’t spotted much of Poirot around, but beer, chocolate and rain are the leitmotifs to my Belgian impressions. And since I will be in Belgium for the next few months some time, I might as well get used to the rain.

Still, I can’t believe how cold the summer has been. On any given day, I wear a sweater and a jacket. I keep sunglasses and umbrella in my purse, because even if it’s sunny, the chances of rain are high.  The beer somewhat makes up for the cold weather, but since I shouldn’t rely on beer alone, I’ve been seeking solace  in other things. First of all, the warm, oriental style perfumes. Bombshells like Chanel Coco or Guerlain L’Heure Bleue are too much on days when the sun is warm and generous, but incense rich Diptyque Eau Lente, Annick Goutal Myrrhe Ardente, By Kilian Rose Oud, Chanel No 22 and Christian Dior Mitzah feel just right, whether it’s rain or shine. A recent discovery, Olfactive Studio Lumiere Blanche, with its creamy sandalwood drydown is another perfect warm accessory.

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by Suzanna

Red lipstick is a force to be reckoned with.  No other lipstick color can be so right…and so wrong.  Pick the wrong red and your skin and teeth might take on an unbecoming yellowish hue.  Pick the right red and watch your face (and teeth) light up.

I started wearing red lipstick at the dawn of the blog age, around 2005.  It seems like ages ago now, but blogger swatches made it easy to see colors in various lights and understand how they might work for you.  Red lipstick made my makeup routine easy:  I wear it and little else.  Nothing should compete for attention with red.

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By Suzanna

I live in a city that is high on football and low on perfume shopping.  Gator fans would likely not want things the other way around.  You cannot live in Gainesville, Florida and not participate, one way or another, in the football ubiquity.  As I discovered, however, with a bit of creativity you can live in Gainesville or other small towns and participate in the enjoyment of hard-to-find perfume.

I’m a small town perfumista.  This means that there are no boutiques or high-end stores at which to sample fragrance.  There’s no Barney’s or Luckyscent or even a top-shelf Sephora.  We didn’t have a Sephora until 2009, and when it arrived it proved to be one of the closely edited Sephora stores. We have small versions of big department stores.

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Spring flashes past me in a flurry of pink cherry petals. Every year I anticipate it with the same impatience, whether or not the winter tested me with too many snowy days. I just love the rejuvenation I feel in the air, the promise of something new, and fresh scents all around me. I immediately want to clean out my closet, throw things away, wash windows—what madness!—plan an exciting trip, read new books, learn a new language. I don’t make New Year resolutions; my springs are all about making changes.

In tandem with my bouts of energy, I also crave uplifting perfumes. Because I wear fragrances to match my mood, rather than my seasons, I noticed over the past few years that my springtime staples tend to be invigorating and energizing. They give me an extra jolt when my spirits begin to sag thanks to the nasty colds I catch as the seasons change, and they also make it easier to go through the day when the morning are still too dark and the evenings are still cool.

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