My week and what went well:
I hope the rest of your week goes well too.
Photo: Scott Ranger’s Nature Notes, http://www.scottranger.com.
It was a long week. My husband had to be out of the country all week on business and I had to resolve a very challenging situation at work with lots of ramifications. But now it’s Friday! My work challenge appears to be successfully resolved; and my nice husband is home, bearing gifts from Barcelona. For me: a large bottle of Custo Barcelona L’Eau. Lovely!
Custo Barcelona is a fashion firm that was born in Barcelona. Its style is young, funky, colorful and cheerful. So is its fragrance. According to various websites, CB L’Eau is supposed to be a lighter version of the original Custo Barcelona fragrance that came out in 2008. The same “nose”, Alberto Morillas, developed both. For L’Eau, the top notes are bergamot, grapefruit and galbanum. Heart notes are peony, jasmine and “exotic fruits.” Base notes are musk, tonka bean, woody notes. It smells very European to me but not French. Catalan, perhaps! Definitely a citrusy floral with woody undertones: bright, cheerful, feminine, warm.
Custo Barcelona fashions, from Photoquivir 2015.
I love Barcelona, especially the Barri Gotic and the Eixample neighborhood. I love the food, especially the fresh seafood, the tapas and the different kinds of sangria.I love Antonio Gaudi’s architecture there, including the stunning Sagrada Familia cathedral, still unfinished; his signature curves, bright colors and fanciful patterns have clearly influenced later Barcelona designers like Custo Barcelona and Desigual. And Custo Barcelona L’Eau definitely evokes the city, with its playful vibe layered over complexities. It reminds me of the Parc Guell, a Gaudi masterpiece and fantastical park with gardens, mosaics and fanciful structures. The gardens contain fragrant herbs, trees, and flowers. Some of its trees are tropical; some bear fruit. The blog In Search of a Thousand Cafes describes it well, with many lovely photos, including the one above.
CB L’Eau starts off bright and juicy, but the galbanum top note gives it a green, herbal astringency that cuts the sweetness of the citrus notes. It slowly blossoms into a light, fruity floral — more flowers than fruits, which I like. This part of its progression matches the bright pink of the peony notes and the pretty bottle.
I love how the shape of the bottle matches the typography of the design house’s logo. The bottle is really unique, with its textured metallic inset of silver, asymmetrical cap and ombre tinted pink glass. The last phase of CB L’Eau is lightly musky, with sweetness from the tonka bean and dryness from the woody notes. I can still smell the base notes on my wrist ten hours after first spraying myself. All in all, a delightful gift from a delightful man! I’m grateful to have both.
Parc Guell benches: photo by TileMosaicGirl.com
My “three blessings” this week:
How about you?
It has taken me some time to decide which people I would highlight on my page called People I Like. I like many people! Most are not famous; others would not know their names and they would not welcome publicity. But now I know at least one to list. Pope Francis. What an incredible visit he has had here in America. What simple eloquence, shining through his accented English.
Photo: James Lawler Duggan/Reuters, The New York Times.
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.
This week:
I do this exercise, also called “Three Blessings”, weekly as a mindfulness/gratitude practice. What helps you focus on the good things in your life?
Recently, I sampled Boucheron eau de toilette. And I did NOT care for it. Too strong for me, too heavy. But I had some on a test strip, which I took home to share with my daughter. I left it on a table in my bedroom. Over the next night and day, it dried down into a more pleasing scent — still not right for me, but strangely familiar. I just could not put my finger on what it evoked.
A day later, I had it! Although Boucheron was launched years after my parents’ social prime, it reminded me of their cocktail parties, when one of my jobs was to greet guests, take their coats and lay them neatly on the big bed in a guest room. Many of the women wore minks. And that is what Boucheron called to mind. Unapologetic wealth. Old school elegance. A statement perfume for women who wear statement jewelry. Not my style, but impeccably designed to a high, specific standard. Just like Boucheron jewels. I’ll pass, but thanks for the memories.
Photo: Philippe Pottier, 1957, from highlowvintage.com
My “three blessings” this week:
Day 6 of Writing 101: where do I write? and what tools do I use?
I often write in the sunroom of our house. It opens into both the dining room on one side and the family room on the other; the other two walls are mostly windows. It’s a good place to write on my laptop, as I can be among the family activities and available to answer homework questions, for instance, but it is also very peaceful and somewhat apart. It has great natural light and the view is of trees and our garden. At night, I can hear the katydids and crickets outside the window.
I use a Macbook Air laptop to do most of my writing. I love this laptop! It is very lightweight and sleek, and I love how quickly I can find quotes, photographs, other blogs, publications — anything I could want to liven up my own writing. In the days when I wrote at a typewriter, I often had writer’s block because the perfectionist in me couldn’t bear to type words onto real paper until my sentences were close to perfect, or have to scratch out phrases. You can imagine how that slowed me down! Writing onscreen has totally liberated me from that, as any awkward phrase can be made to vanish instantly with no trace that it was ever there.
There are times, though, when I like to revert to the fountain pens I used as a child (required in a school I attended — yes, it was an old-fashioned European school), or some other nice writing instrument. If I write a personal note or card, or a poem, I do like the feel of pen, ink and paper together. I don’t, however, still use the Sheaffer’s “peacock blue” ink I favored for several years. Good thing I don’t yearn after it, because it was discontinued some time ago. Apparently it still has a cult following, though: Passionate About Peacock Blue Ink. I’d better not dwell on that, or I might start yearning.
Day 5: go to Twitter and find a tweet that inspires you to write. I wasn’t inspired by the five suggestions, so I chose this:
9/11 is a melancholy day for so many. I was blessed not to lose anyone I knew, but I used to live and work in NYC, including for a time very close to the World Trade Center. I remember going to its observation deck the year it first opened. Some of my friends were in lower Manhattan that awful day and are still traumatized. So this story about a tree that was literally buried in rubble, was dug out and found to be severely damaged, but was nursed back to health and replanted near the 9/11 Memorial, inspired me with its message of resilience and hope. I love that its seeds are collected and planted so that seedlings of this tree can be shared with other communities that have suffered. There’s a reason why Eden was envisioned as a garden.
Photo: National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 