...Triffid:Commiserations! It's always the special ones, isn't it? Never the cheapo bargain bottles you bought on a whim and don't really care for anyway. My own tragedy involves a bottle of Joy pure parfum that I bought duty free on my first overseas trip back in the late eighties. Rather an unconventional choice for a leather-wearing rocker in her twenties but it was love at first sniff and I doled out half a week's wages for it.It was duly stored in its box and eked out in carefully measured drops so it would last. Well, last it did not. Eighteen months later the top notes had turned and I assumed it was no longer wearable. Should have splashed it on when I had the chance!Funny thing is, I kept the little ribbed bottle and pulled it out a couple of years ago. There was still some perfume in it, now dark and viscous. Still smelled bad from the bottle but after I applied it and the top notes had burned off, it was lovely. Probably sells at $20/ml for the vintage parfum these days.I always regretted not buying the EDP spray - I hated having to dab the concentrate on with my fingers. Don't know if that hastened its demise but I've heard that pure parfum can turn more quickly as it contains less alcohol to act as a preservative. Good reason to keep drinking maybe...I still push the wrong buttons. Back to the point…No joy with that one..what a blow. You are right of course, it's the air getting in thats the problem. I did notice that the cap had lifted on the bottle of Alahine and thought nothing of it: I just pushed it down again from where it had blocked the spray nozzle, but this may have been the culprit. Thank your for commiserations and your loss was greater than mine. Joy, what's not to love?
Tragedy. When perfumes turn
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...Yes, the top notes are destroyed but it carries something of itself a bit later on, my Ancient Mariner of a fume, the albatross around the neck.
22
03.03.2014
Tragedy. When perfumes turn
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...My bottle of Alahine has gone off…turned, rotten little worm. Only eighteen months old and kept in a cool dark cupboard. Has anybody got any stories to tell?
22
02.03.2014
What perfume have you bought recently?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...Apres L'Ondee. Eau du Sud (3rd) L'Heure Bleu(first FBI)
533
01.03.2014
Good-smelling cheapies are hard to find
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...SystemeD:I am stunned that no one has mentioned the house of Balmain yet. Their line of fragrances are always of quality, and always affordable. My favorites:"Jolie Madame""Balmain de Balmain"And my favorite vintage:"Vent Vert" -- the original one by Germaine Cellier. I have not tried the reformulations (1991 Calice Becker, 1999 Nathalie Feisthauer), so I cannot speak to those.The new Ivoire can be found at the discounters very cheaply. It carries the watermark of old Ivoire but has been reinterpreted by Michel Almairac and Jacques Fiori. I think it's gorgeous, bottle and all. One couldn't go wrong with all those mentioned. I am very pleased to see that Foustie mentions Cabochard in its reformulated state; I was put off by a Bois de Jasmin review, but now I have to try it again!
79
27.02.2014
The Guerlain Aqua Allegoria line: Your favourites?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...I have toyed with buying one of these but with Apres L'Ondee likely to be discontinued I bought it instead at a very good price on Fragrancenet. I read somewhere that Guerlain was trying to recapture something of Apres L'Ondee's ethereal appeal with the AA series.
24
26.02.2014
Good-smelling cheapies are hard to find
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...Tessa:Grey Flannel is not expensive and it is a warm, well rounded, persistent eau de toilette whose notes I have discovered in more expensive brands. Mackie by Bob Mackie. A well achieved oriental, strong and with good sillage, in good taste and elegant, less expensive than Van Cleff and Arpels, Lancome etc.L'Or des Scynthes by Novaya Zarya. A $15 bottle for a marvelous, extremely powerful perfume.Grey Flannel is great value, the sharp violet is well treated
79
22.02.2014
Good-smelling cheapies are hard to find
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...Cheapy cheapy cheep cheep. A little bird named Sherapop told me about Molinard II. There are other votes for Vanille Marine and Patchouli. I wish I had seen these before I ordered Fancy Nights. The $ damage was negligible but I don't like it much and wish I had known about the Molinards. I bought a bottle of Y (YSL) and consider that to be the classiest discounted perfume. Cant do much better than Y.
79
19.02.2014
What perfume have you bought recently?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...... in a terrible state of weakness, a bottle of Apres L'Ondee. That's it for the next few months
533
11.02.2014
Is it time to stock up?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...If the restrictions are going to be that bad then I guess I've got enough for my life time anyway. I think I will sniff the new releases at the best counter I can find and grumble 'In my day we had real perfume' in the most curmudgeonly tone possible
14
10.02.2014
Your favorite classic Eau de Cologne?
by Omni | Perfumes by Note, Accord, Genre
...Epimedes:For me, I would say five or six hours easily. Even more when sprayed on a fabric, less when it's very hot outside. It hovers close to the skin after the first half an hour, but never disappears, I can smell it distinctly.I have this too. I'm on my second bottle. It's very similar to Tuscan Soul by Ferragamo but with more lasting power than the latter and with a better basenotes. When I bought Eau de Jade it was at the discounters. Far too spensy for me now.
46
09.02.2014
What's in a fragrance name?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...Triffid:Mr Triffid doesn't bother to learn the names at all, instead referring to "the red box", "the blue box", "that oud one" etc. Marketing is totally lost on him!Correct pronunciation of French perfume names can be an issue for me. In our early teens, my older sister was given a bottle of Anais Anais by a boyfriend and was very precious about it - I was forbidden to even touch the bottle. I thought it was hilarious that she should be given a perfume that sounded like 'Anus Anus'. "Wouldn't want to touch it anyway!" was my response to my now doubtful and distraught sibling.Caught between an Irish Mother, a Father from London and a Kiwi upbringing I can mutilate French perfume names. To the rescue:http://fragnameoftheday.blogspot.co.nzBela contributes to Bois de Jasmin and now has over 1020 perfume names in sound bites so that we can get it right…attempt to get it right
15
08.02.2014
What's in a fragrance name?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...I'd like to think that I'm name neutral. :wink: I looked past the kitschy little name "Fancy Nights" didn't I?But I do admit that single word names that sound exotic or literary are attractive to me. Some examples:"Theorema""Coromandel""Samsara""Shalimar""Chergui:c1abfa731b]I have a bottle of FN coming with some Arpege. Fully shipped to the bottom of the world for $40 US. I love the computer age
15
07.02.2014
What's in a fragrance name?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...Who remembers the scene from A Fish called Wanda where Archie employs every Russian non sequitur in rapturous verse to arouse the wonderful Wanda? I think Dulcemio is on to something
15
07.02.2014
Best/worst/weirdest new perfumes of 2013?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...With 1200 new perfume releases a year I haven't bothered to keep up.I was interested in the new Boucheron but it failed to fire. It's fun reading all your assessments though. I am a Jean Claude fan and I need to revisit Jour D"Hermes in a non perfumed environment.
21
06.02.2014
Your favorite classic Eau de Cologne?
by Omni | Perfumes by Note, Accord, Genre
...For me it was always Eau de Rochas but now it's Eau du Sud
46
25.01.2014
The animalic bad girls
by Omni | Perfumes by Note, Accord, Genre
Re: Can we talk honey? That's animalic too, right?
...Dulcemio:It doesn't have to be civet-laden to qualify, does it?I can't believe I'm saying this, but has anyone tried Kim Kardashian's "Pure Honey" ? Some of the reviews sound good. (If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time ever that I've inquired about a celebrity scent, and it's a celebrity that I DO NOT admire to boot! So, someone please alert the media.)Or anything that has a similar description from a better "house." I would like to find a honey scent where honey is detectable but not completely dominant, and just a little sweet, with some light flowers and wood, maybe a little resin.Alahine by Teo Cabanel is well worth trying for these accords
68
23.01.2014
The end of a love affair-Scents that have lost their magic ?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...Thank you Dulcemio. The fact that he was willing to get up, shower and use a fragrance was enough for me. He was such a trooper. He wore Aramis Devin when I met him and even though it's different now, (the point of the thread we are contributing to) it still sets my tummy to butterflies.
146
22.01.2014
The end of a love affair-Scents that have lost their magic ?
by Omni | Perfumes & Brands
...My daughter will dab the corpse with Bal a Versailles when I die. The old bod will sure as hell smell different then, full of embalming fluids, but the Bal and I won't mind that we smell different - and the same. For a time my husband had to take a drug that altered his body odour; mixed with his Ungaro III, it wasn't the greatest, but I never said because that would have destroyed his confidence. Perfume gives us confidence, yes? A poem by Rudyard KiplingIF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,But make allowance for their doubting too;If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated, don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;If you can bear to hear the truth you've spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breathe a word about your loss;If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,If all men count with you, but none too much;If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
146
21.01.2014