Sunday, July 27, 2008

Santa Maria Novella - Potpourri

To embalm a saponified corpse by - evergreen smoke, eucalyptus, juniper berries, ashes. Nosecurling and assaultive when first sprayed, this later takes on the tone of catacombs, monks' robes, and funereal ironwork.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Pacifica - Sandalwood and Tibetan Mountain Temple

Sandalwood really and truly reeked of lemon Pledge, then withered and died eight minutes later. Did someone mislabel bottles?
Meanwhile, TMT makes me yearn not for saffron robes and prayer wheels, but for a crackling gingerbread house with dolly mix roofing and ice cream cone firs. (Pepper-mill at first, then pepparkakor)
Munch, crunch, crumbs on apron, snowglobe.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Flirt! - Glamourazzi

Surprisingly non-offensive bakery item, and normally I am averse to patisserie in the parfumerie. Like a big shimmying tropical cream pie. OR BETTER, shimmying glittery dancing girls (Katie Price types) with pierced navels on a tropical cream pie float bedecked with pineapples, floozy pirates, and mai tais. Cheap fun!

Friday, July 18, 2008

By Kilian - Love

Don't tell me people pay $225 to smell like an Earl Grey marshmallow.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Paco Rabanne - Metal

This begins as the most evil, venomous, Zyklon-B antisept known to man, a poisonous Chartreuse-coloured wraithe capable of liquefying your eyeballs and slurping them in one gulp. Towers crumbling, X-ray vision corroding flesh and sinew, empty-craniumed pod-dwellers gestating in cocoons of steel wool and mercury - for these glorious 15 minutes I am a pure megalomaniac, skewering hearts, bitter and Furious, sing the song of the uranium-veined Siren -
(Whispers: is it dated? It's mineral crystals that phosphoresce, lanterns . . .)
Malevolence, fuming -
Snapped spinal cords and punctured innards.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Bvlgari - Jasmin Noir

Sexually active big sister to Serge Lutens' Un Bois Vanille - very little jasmine, much almond milk plushness, like the slicked-back hair of a Robert Palmer video vamp.
EDIT: amazing lasting power - the next day this is kissing cousin to Lubin Idole, ebony and mahogany richness, glossy, luxe, lickable.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Escada - Moon Sparkle

Explosion at the Lotte chewing gum factory in the middle of a sweltering Korean heatwave.