Bassavina

I'm not generally a floral type—until Acaciosa. It is bright and celebratory, with the ylang-ylang, jasmine, orange blossom, and rose ringing out from beginning to end. A dab of the extrait will do, just on each wrist. If Joy is joy, this is Joy as a verb, Rejoicing.

I wrote this last summer, thus the reference to Ramadan:

It is hard to imagine a dinner "guest" more suitable for a dinner that began with exchanges of both "Shabbat Shalom" and "Ramadan Mubarak" than Serge Lutens Sarrasins. My gracious jet-lagged guests arrived, bearing not just the awaited bell jar, but also some Pernod, assuring a dinner that would end as splendidly as it began.

Carefully, I opened the package, preserving the monogrammed seal on the outer wrapping. I got cotton swabs and passed one to my guests, who were my Algerian friend and his wife, and my two children. First of all, that is some purple juice and at first sniff it smelled "purple" in the way I remember grape soda as a kid. This could very well be castoreum. Yes, indolic jasmine to start, with a hint of crushed stems as well as blooms, then throughout the evening, a waxy sweetness, possibly osmanthus, would waft up from the crook in my elbow, which seems to be where Lutens all like to live and bloom. It is to me a very personal skin scent, and as it blooms it takes on a corporeal sort of warmth.

I really can't further describe how Sarrasins smells, but I can describe how it feels: post-coital bliss with a bowl of ice cream. Luxe and sated.

I happily found this fragrance of my youth on eBay in an unfamiliar formulation: "locion". It starts out with a bit of a dirty, sweaty note,possibly ambergris, then fades to reveal a true sandalwood that is creamy and lasting. Not a complex fragrance at all, but earthy, sensual, and easy to wear. I sometimes wear 3 or 4 parts MdO to 1 part Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose.

Although tobacco is not listed as a note, I get a tobacco/leather vibe reminiscent of a somewhat better-behaved Yatagan. Very wearable for men, no doubt. As a woman, I might wear this layered with the jasmine from Donna Karan Essences.

This stuff makes me want to run out and have unprotected reckless sex with the guy you don't take home to mother even if I am way too old for such nonsense. A sex bomb of a fragrance. Luscious.