Some people think that January is the longest month, but I didn’t mind it. The days are finally getting longer, and I relish each extra minute of sunlight that we get. I know it won’t get warmer here for a while, so I’m still rotating through my ambers, smelling new things, and sharing perfume with anyone who wants some. Be thoughtful, enjoy your time here.
Some beautiful perfume helped me get through the month, or at least enjoy it. Meharées by L’Erbolario and Musc Ravageur by Frederic Malle Perfumes. Ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, and a sprinkle of lemon sugar is the perfect recipe.
I got a decant of L’Erbolario Méharées, and I fell in love with it from the very first spray. I finished my decant immediately and looked around for a bottle. I would even say that it was the best $50 I spent on perfume last year. I have a few cheapies in my collection, but a lot of them are thin and watery, but this one isn’t. It’s on the sweet side but has a certain amount of complexity which I really enjoy.
Musc Ravageur is not exactly like Méharées but nobody said it was. The drydown is the same, and Musc Ravageur is surprisingly sweet for a Malle creation. The spices are more present than they are in Méharées. The samples I have are also missing the lemon sugar opening from Méharées, and there’s a soft animalic purr that comes out a little while into its wear. If this is a seduction, it’s a slow, sly one that sneaks up on you. Before you know it, you’re in its grip and it’s too good, and too late, to bother escaping.
When you’re parents are around, you revert to being a kid, so I’m choosing to be 24 which is how old I was when I got this bottle of Narciso Rodriguez. I smelled it at an airport duty free and couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I got it. This is the perfume that launched many flankers, and the mix of rose and musk is now classic. It’s impressive what the perfumers, Christine Nagel and Francis Kurkdjian, have accomplished since, but also impressive that this smells grown up and accessible at once, classic but also modern. In a way, it reminds me of Glossier You, but maybe Glossier You’s cool, older aunt who works as a lawyer now but before that sold homemade soaps or something. I guess there’s a floral musk-heavy perfume for every generation.
