Bloom Perfumery

Perfume Chat Room, October 4
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Perfume Chat Room, October 4

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, October 4, and it has been an eventful week! Not so much personally, but since last Friday, my part of the US has seen untold, unimaginable damage from flooding and winds arising from Hurricane Helene. Western North Carolina, a forested, mountainous region with many rivers and creeks, saw floods that were the worst on record, even including a massive, historic flood in 1916. My own region got the most rainfall in 48 hours that it has had since the 1880s. Rescues and repairs are ongoing; everyone from the federal government agencies to local volunteers, and every group you can imagine in between, has offered resources and support. My favorite volunteer group to date is the troupe of pack mules and their keepers, who were trucked to a staging location and are packing supplies up the mountain roads that vehicles still can’t travel.

Mountain Mule Packer Ranch to the rescue!

On a lighter note, this week I’ve been trying out another of my bargain beauty purchases from London: Brocard’s Color Feeling Purple. Wow! This one’s a real keeper, and what a bargain at 15 pounds! It is a sweet violet fragrance with a blackberry accord that mingles beautifully with the powdery vibe of violet and iris. The perfumer is Dominique Moellhausen, whose family owns a Milan-based company that has been in the fragrance industry for over 50 years, both creating fragrances and selling raw materials and aromachemicals.

The notes listed on Fragrantica for Color Feeling Purple are: violet, blackberry, iris, heliotrope, oakmoss, cedar, amber, vetiver, orchid. It opens with a blast of violet and blackberry, and as it dries down it gets warmer and more powdery. I really like the blackberry note combined with violet. As the scent dries down, the violet remains dominant but the fruity blackberry note is slowly replaced by powdery iris and heliotrope. The drydown is warmed by the notes of amber, vetiver, and oakmoss; I don’t really smell cedar, and I never know what perfumers mean when they say there’s a note of “orchid”, since many orchids don’t have a distinctive scent and those that do, mostly smell to me like vanilla (vanilla comes from an orchid plant). Bloom Perfumery, where I bought this, describes the scent on its website as “holding sugared violets candy with leather gloves.” I’m not perceiving leather very much at all, but the longer it dries down on my skin, the more plausible that becomes. Color Feeling Purple has a more complex, interesting progression than one might expect from an inexpensive fragrance.

What a pleasant surprise! Have you tried any fragrances lately that surprised you?

Brocard’s Color Feeling Purple; image from Bloom Perfumery
Perfume Chat Room, September 20
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Perfume Chat Room, September 20

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, September 20, and we are back from London! What a great visit we had — especially me, since my dear husband had to work and I got to play. I have a lot to share with you in upcoming posts; I visited Harrods’ Salon de Parfums for the first time, as well as Liberty London’s Fragrance Lounge. I also went to Les Senteurs, Jo Loves, Jovoy, and Bloom. Among other cultural experiences, I saw the National Gallery’s exhibition of Van Gogh paintings, “Poets and Lovers”, which was wonderful. I met lovely people who shared their insights with me and helped me try some wonderful scents. What a generous community fragrance lovers are!

Right now, I’m fighting to stay awake, so this will be a short post, but do share in the comments any recent fragrance experiences or discoveries!

Sunflowers by Van Gogh
Perfume Chat Room, January 8
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Perfume Chat Room, January 8

Happy New Year again, and welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, January 8, and it’s been quite a week. I know some of you don’t live in the US and are wondering what on earth is going on here. So are many Americans, except that many of us have feared exactly what we saw on Wednesday. This isn’t a political blog, so I won’t say much more, except that most of America is NOT rioting and I believe people of good will from both parties and all points of view will unite to oppose the violence the world saw in our capital this week. I have little or no such confidence in the media, social and traditional, that thrive on conspiracy theories and make money from them as clickbait.

Getting back to fragrance, but with a dose of dark humor — I believe I will pull out my discovery set from BeauFort London, which includes fragrances with notes of gunpowder and smoke. The first launches, the collection “Come Hell or High Water”, is named for aspects of British history. According to the US Capitol historian, the last time the Capitol was breached by a large hostile force was in the British invasion of DC in 1814, during the War of 1812. I first tried the BeauFort London fragrances at a favorite independent perfumery in London, Bloom, where I bought the discovery set. They are unisex, possibly leaning masculine; I especially liked Fathom V. Have you tried any of BeauFort London’s scents? Do you know of others that include a note of gunpowder? Or, in the other direction, any favorite perfumes that incorporate the word “Peace”?

Perfume Chat Room, February 28
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Perfume Chat Room, February 28

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly — I’ve been known to write on this blog about biryani, one of my favorite dishes to eat and one I am still learning to make! (If you have a great recipe for it, please share!).

This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is February 28, and tomorrow is Leap Day, a rare event in the calendar. My SOTD is supposed to be a “unicorn”, following the Now Smell This community project, which has defined a “unicorn” scent as “a perfume you suspect no one else (or almost no one else) on Now Smell This owns, or something that you very rarely see worn or mentioned.” If I still had any, I would wear the unicorn scent I wrote about some time ago, L’Iris de Fath. Alas, it is such an expensive unicorn that I had the rare privilege of trying it once, but I don’t have any more (I did, however, put a drop on a ceramic scent disc, which still smells faintly of it). Continue reading →

Fragrance (Black) Friday 2019
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Fragrance (Black) Friday 2019

UPDATED WITH MANY MORE CODES, including non-USA: It’s that time of year again, when there are many alluring sales on all kinds of goods for “Black Friday”, and today I’m going to share some of the possibilities related to perfumes. I especially want to highlight independent perfumers and retailers, as they are the ones bringing the most interesting fragrances to market, and if we perfumistas want them to continue, we’ve got to support them with our purchases.

Here, in roughly alphabetical order, are some of the discount codes I’ve been sent or have found: some are valid now through Sunday or Monday, and others will only work on Black Friday itself. Please add any others you have found in the comments below! Continue reading →

Scent Sample Sunday: Brocard’s Mechta
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Scent Sample Sunday: Brocard’s Mechta

When I last stayed in London, I was able to visit the wonderful Bloom perfumery, near Covent Garden. I highly recommend a visit! They carry an amazing range of niche perfumes and the staff is remarkably friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. I spent a LOT of time there and emerged with a few discovery sets, including a set of three floral fragrances from Brocard, the revived Russian perfume house. It holds three of the series “Gardens of Temptation”, 15 ml each. This set includes: Mechta, Elegantnost, and Luybov.

Brocard Gardens of Temptation set 1 Inspiration

Brocard Gardens of Temptation set “Inspiration”

The set contains three small, simple flacons, not the funky bottles pictured above, which are the full-size bottles.

Mechta is described on Bloom’s website as a “spicy mimosa”. Its composition is described as: top notes are violet, hyacinth, and grass; middle notes are mimosa, linden blossom, magnolia, and clover; base notes are musk, honey, and cedar.

On my skin, Mechta opens as a bright, grassy violet; no hyacinth that I can detect. One thing I enjoy about this opening is the absence of citrus, which makes it a little different. I do love a good citrus opening, but I like this scent’s different top notes. As it dries down, the mimosa emerges, and it is a soft, pretty, yellow mimosa.  In the process of reading for this post, I discovered a wonderful Russian fragrance blog (thank you, Google Translate!) called Parfumistika, and its review of Brocard’s Gardens of Temptation, which includes the brand’s own description:

… drops of morning dew glistening on the grass and unusual green bitterness of hyacinth. The sun rises, coolness recedes, and the bright, joyful smells of linden-colored, mimosa, magnolia and acacia are revealed in all their glory. A firework of flowers gradually turns into a warm, honey-musky trail.

My experience of Mechta is more soft than bright, but very pleasant. If you don’t care for intensely green scents, fear not — the only green I detect is the grassy opening, which gives way to the mimosa pretty early. I would describe Mechta as a soft, warm, yellow, light floral. It’s very pretty, and very affordable if you can find it. I look forward to trying more of Brocard’s fragrances!

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Fragrance Friday: Perfume Tourism in London

I was lucky enough to spend a recent long weekend in London and spent one whole day visiting perfumeries! Many of them were in the charming Burlington Arcade. And yes, I came home with samples, discovery sets and a gift certificate. All the store personnel were friendly, welcoming and knowledgeable. I’ll be back! My slideshow is below:

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