roses

Fragrance Friday: Blasted Bloom
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Fragrance Friday: Blasted Bloom

Well, he’s done it again. My nice husband turns out to have an instinct for choosing wonderful perfume on my behalf and this time, he brought home a brand new scent from London for me: Penhaligon’s Blasted Bloom. What my husband had no way of knowing is that the nose behind Blasted Bloom is the legendary Alberto Morillas — who also created another perfume he brought me from his travels, which I love: Fragrance Friday: Custo Barcelona L’Eau. Morillas has also created several others I like, such as Estee Lauder’s Pleasures and Bvlgari’s Omnia Coral and Omnia Indian Garnet.

From Penhaligon’s website: “Illuminating the freshness of wild flora found along the dramatic British coast, Blasted Bloom captures a free-spirited landscape where the energy and majesty of the Sea meets the natural richness of the Land. The mineral purity of an aquatic accord meets the fruity sparkle of wild berries and the sensation of hand-crushed green leaves. Wild floral heart of eglantine rose and hawthorn is tinted with pink pepper. A whisper of Clearwood™ is enveloped in balmy cedarwood, on a smooth bed of moss and musks.” Continue reading →

Fragrance Friday: Autumn Roses
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Fragrance Friday: Autumn Roses

Our first child was born in early November. She was a gorgeous baby, with round pink cheeks, wide blue eyes and a soft downy fuzz of golden-reddish hair that soon turned to blonde curls. I remember walking through the neighborhood with my precious newborn strapped to my chest or snoozing in her baby carriage (yes, a real carriage, with big wheels and a hood). Here in Zone 7, the last roses of the year were still blooming. I remember stopping with the baby carriage to pick a white blossom, marveling at its presence so late in the fall and feeling its silken petals, which were no softer or more delicately shaded than my tiny daughter’s skin.

And now that daughter is a beautiful young lady, in the full bloom of young womanhood, blossoming in her mind, education and pursuits as we have always dreamed she would. A few late roses still bloom in our neighborhood during her birth month, their scent joining the fragrance of autumn air, fires newly lit in hearths, the  wet earth soaked through from autumn rains and covered with fallen, colorful leaves that add their own scent.

I love rose fragrances, and I have learned so much about so many, and I’ll write about them soon, but this Fragrance Friday is all about my girl, my autumn rose.

Photo: Anne Geddes.

An Autumn Bouquet
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An Autumn Bouquet

Now that autumn is really here where I live, it seems as if it’s time to rotate the header image to a more autumnal bouquet. The original of this lovely photo comes from David Austin Roses, and it shows an arrangement designed by Thomas De Bruyle. The full photo is the feature image for this post. Enjoy!

Fragrance Friday: Cabaret, Cirque du Soleil
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Fragrance Friday: Cabaret, Cirque du Soleil

I love reading other people’s comments on perfumes. Some are full-length reviews by known “perfumistas”, others are anonymous comments on sites like Fragrantica.com.  Many are very clever and evocative. For instance, this comment about the eau de parfum Cabaret, by Gres:

It is a rose chypre, somewhat melancholy in feeling but still alive. Like a ghost…. Cabaret is a great name…it also reminds me of my theatre background. Fresh soft florals, mostly rose at the top, and the base is a very dry clay smell. It is cool and elegant with a transparent, almost dusty smell. I think of the atmosphere backstage at every show I have been involved in. Antique wood counters in the dressing room, waxy makeup and powder strewn across them. Vases and vases of roses and lilies. That musky smell of fresh sweat from dancers just coming off stage.

The image that immediately came to my mind was a Cirque du Soleil show I saw this year, called “Zarkana.” It is described as being set in an abandoned theatre that mysteriously comes back to life for an evening, starting with the appearance of ghostly white figures of performers like ballerinas and acrobats with white-powdered hair and stage make up. At the start, the huge stage is lusciously draped with great swags of crimson velvet. The pale figures emerge from the darkness after the curtain swirls upward. And at the very end of the show, the cinematic backdrop turns into a rippling cascade of deep red roses, while the same ghostly performers and other more colorful characters come out to take their final bows.  Maybe this perfume should be renamed Zarkana. Or at least Cirque.

Finale, Zarkana, Cirque du Soleil.

Photo: Cirque du Soleil.