Anosmia

Just read the book of Nadja Spiegelmann, another halfway interesting book about neurotic families and the only passage that stuck to my mind so far is when she talks about her English teacher claiming that "nice" is not a compliment and the word should be abolished all together...and Nadja stating that years later she found out that nice is a really rare and valuable virtue.
What's wrong with nice?

Cinema is nice. Not overwhelming, but nice. Nice citrus, nice flowers, nice vanilla. Never too much of any. A little shy sillage- and longevity-wise. Nothing outstanding, nothing attracting attention. I heard comments like "nice", "boring", "unspecific","girly" most of the time.
I agree with mademoiselle Spiegelmann: nice is underrated.
Nice clothes, jewellery or even people usually don't catch your eye immediately but become close to your heart on the long run: while you are busy searching for even bigger excitment you might realise that you have grown really fond of the basic-piece-skirt that you just bought for a job interview, a string of pearls that was handed down to you from your grandmother and the girl that was never the center of the party or your attention when you first met but is now your best and most loyal friend.

I finished a bottle of the "boring" cinema because it's easy to wear, year round and to most occasions, and everyone likes it without cinema ever being too loud. And I bought another bottle. It is just comfy and simple and pleasant.
And that is really nice:)

Amouage, a brand that started with an extraordinary piece of work (gold) around which a lot of myths were piling up, is now a brand well-known and well-established, with a perfume range from friendly scents like blossom love to really strange ones like interlude.
Although I have to admit I am more on the sunshine side, because it's easier to wear, the real masterpieces focus on oriental ingredients.
And the masterpiece of all masterpieces is for sure Memoir.
Not only because of all the interesting and intense scents added to the perfume, frankincense being the most dominant one, in general showing woody, spicy, smoky sides.
The real work of art here is the blending. Memoir is like an old, complicated Single Malt, coming up with new notes and tones every half an hour.
It is constantly changing, not in a disturbing way though...this perfume takes you on a trip, showing all his beautiful ingredients by switching attitudes.
That is astonishing: The constant changing.
In one moment you might be a lady, distant and coolish, next one a black witch going through the underwood, laughing huskily and burning herbs, then an Arabian princess, seductive and erotic, leading a lush life in the palace...
...and all of that with a bomb sillage and outstanding longevity.
For feminists.
For punk-ladies.
For witches.
For every woman that wants to show her strength.

I just bought a 30 ml bottle right before I went to Türkiye and gonna finish this one. In general, I am not a big fan of perfumes accompanying lotions or scrubs but in this case I couldn't resist.
The scrub is one of my favourites with an incredibly strong scent that is lasting for hours, close to skin and described as creamy, sweet, cozy and very pleasant.
What works for a scrub or body butter might not work for a perfume. Kind of makes sense. A good scrub is rubbed into your skin, lotion on your skin, both melting in your natural odeur while a perfume takes some time to really "melt in".
Considering the poor longevity of this perfume it is first quite strong and then almost disappearing.
Maybe I somehow hoped this could be a cheaper replacement for the scrub, that, used regularly, costs a fortune. But no. I got tons of compliments for the scrub while the perfume is ignored. Maybe it is about the freshness. The scrub is going heavy on the creamy flower while the perfume seems to start more watery if you are not totally overdoing it.
Not a bad thing, but no crowdpleaser either.
Doesn't harm to test or buy it though :)

That one caught my interest with the red bottle and because it sounded like a grown up LPRN - any version....
So I bought it spontaneously on a stroll through Zurich and never regretted. The feedback is promising: Citrus and woods, lovely fruity, nice vanilla. The longevity is really good.
A lot of people around me like that smell. If not overdone. That can get pretty unpleasant, especially in the beginning, smelling like red fruit jelly ("Rote Grütze" in German) - a bit to sweet.
The beginning, like in "all" the crazy packaged Lucas perfumes is way more complex and interesting than most of the heart and the longlasting base. Obviously he likes to start with a blast but not confuse the wearer and his surrounding with ongoing change.

The different reviews on Fragrantica.com and Parfumo.de surprised me. The reviews on Parfumo were mostly positive, not necessarily enthusiastic (erotic, mysterious, interesting), but few opinions went lower than "okay, nice" while the Fragrantica-crowd seemed to be either puzzled (rotten fruits) or disgusted, one review stating that Qom Chilom reeks like a wino.
In fact, it's supposed to invision a waterpipe. Not a brothel, not an old Persian city, not a rotten fruit. And maybe, just maybe, waterpipes are more appealing to European noses, since they are geographically and culture wise a little bit closer to this tradition then someone from the other side of the Atlantic?

Anyway, it's one of my favourites. Not to pleasant and not to experimental. Definitely worth a try!

Completely contrary to the fashion line of the company which has got a clear twist by Lagerfeld towards punk and has made itself popular with the young audience, the No 5 is modernized in the sense of the inventor and has kept its classic, elegant appearance, so I hear anyway.
When I had it new, I "shared" it with a friend and my mother, so to speak, and up and down the country, the eau was praised enthusiastically: Flowery, fresh, powdery, noble, elegant, classic, feminine, incomparable, not to be sated, suitable for around the clock, the office, the first date, the theatre, a fantastic, unsurpassable fragrance.
By the way, these storms of enthusiasm came almost exclusively from women. As if he would embody something that almost all women want to radiate - self-confidence and a sense of style presumably.
Eau Premiere sometimes had quite strange effects on the wearers: My girlfriend for example, until then rather from the leather jackets&Boots Fraktion suddenly walked around with a trench coat and a plain light leather bag and tried French Manicure. And my mother had me sew piles of black longsleeves with inserted white shirt collars and cuffs which always had to be worn with Eau Premiere. Surely the name (CHANEL!) contributed a lot to this change of mind, but it was not the decisive point at all.
The first prophecies of doom came from the guys my girlfriend and I had a relationship with. They found the scent old-fashioned, bland, penetrating and absolutely unsexy. Probably it was too perfumed for them, perhaps they also disturbed the aldehydes and the often described soapiness. And I'm sure she was disturbed by what this fragrance expresses. Elegance and understatement were not their thing and under eroticism they imagined fishnet pantyhose, suspenders, tube jeans with boots or hotpants but certainly no silk blouses and trench coats.
And then it happened:
My mother and my girlfriend were tired of the Eau premiere almost overnight: they couldn't stand it anymore and found it exhausting. At the same time, the nude nails and the penchant for selected elegant clothing disappeared, which had to be worn at home until late at night.
What happened?

Perfect elegance is something wonderful. Whenever I see a woman with a full-day perfectly lying short hairstyle or an artistically attached chignon, in a perfectly pale blue crease-free silk blouse that perfectly fits the at least almost perfect figure, in addition a pencil skirt and a casually blowing trench coat - not to forget perfect make-up and perfectly manicured fingernails - then I stop and marvel and swarm.
Elegance as a consistent lifestyle is also something very rare. I think you can see if someone has styled themselves for an event or is on the move every day.
And last but not least (Chanel once said so similarly) elegance is something timeless: Individual accessories may change, a certain attitude, a certain basic style seem to remain. And so No 5 became No 5 Eau Premiere.

BUT: For myself I find elegance a steel bath and I have the impression that I am not alone with it. There are girls who insist as children on being schooled completely in white lace, but forget themselves after the first piece of cake and come back in the evening - as if all the big ones had not suspected it - with torn tights, mud on their dress and leaves in their hair. These girls may then grow up to be women who lay down trench coats and eau premieres to realize after 3 months that this ensemble is not made for their everyday life.
Just as this fragrance gives posture, so it demands it. In the long run he may be too much for robber princesses, even if they find themselves in his self-confidence and determination for the time being.

Which - in the end - doesn't change the fact that a very large perfume was successfully modernised here.