Unique Rosy Gift Ideas

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Henna

Some fancy things that smell like roses – but these roses are fresh and sweet, which is a departure from a gothic rose that one might expect in the winter, and definitely preferable to the cooling summer rose.

I’ve been enjoying this Dr. Vranjes home diffuser in the Rosso Nobile scent. This is rose blended with sweet strawberries that remind you of the summer. The scent is strong, filling my room with the highest ceilings in a matter of minutes. This is a happy cheerful scent and I was glad to be surrounded by it, but after a day I did take the sticks out and leave them to dry because the scent was that strong.

If you like a sweet rose, Guerlain’s new Cherry Oud is a sugary rose that’s lightly spiced with cardamom. It’s easy to wear, very feminine, young, and feels different than some of the other offers at Guerlain’s L’Art et La Matière counter. I have a little sample of Oud Nude that I’ve been trying too and that’s another sweet perfume, with tonka and vanilla in the dry down.

Have you smelled the new line? Do you have a favourite?

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Akro Night Perfume Review

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Henna

Night is supposed to be romantic, sexy, carnal, but if this is how a first date smelled, I there wouldn’t be a second.

TextIt’s a musky rose-oud with animalic cumin in the mix. I have a few rose-cumin and rose-oud perfumes that I love, but this doesn’t smell like any of them because the musk is quite dirty, almost pissy. Thankfully, it’s cleaner and sweeter in the winter, easier for me to wear. The rose is sweet but thin… not quite a bouquet, more of an idea, and I keep wishing I had the real thing in my hands.

This is from Olivier Cresp’s line of perfumes.  He’s known for being the perfumer behind Mugler’s Angle which is revered in the perfume community, and is a best-seller.  The entire Akro line is inspired by “addictions” that we have.  Coffee, booze, partying, etc. The latest one is Ink inspired by tattoos.

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YSL Lash Clash Mascara Review

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Henna

YSL Lash Clash mascara. Yes, this is everything by I want out of mascara but when I was testing it out for the first time I put it on at 8 am and it was smeared on my lids by 10… so, I might try layering it because I do love how it looks. If smudging is not a problem for you, try this mascara! I love the way it looks! So glam.

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Favourite Perfumes with a Ginger Note

Posted on December 19, 2022 by Henna

In India, ginger is known for being a hot spice. You start adding it to your chai when the weather gets colder, and it’s probably why we break out the gingerbread cookies around this time of year. My nose starts itching for my gingery perfumes and these are my favourites. I like the contrast of zingy pungent ginger with the warm cozy ambers in the base – all of these are amber perfumes and they’re perfect for fall and winter.

TextThe ginger in these is a top note and manifests differently in each scent.

Discontinued Ginger: SJP Stash. Also the cheapest of the bunch, this 100ml bottle was much less than $100. The ginger is married with a cedar base so this reads dry. Not very strong or long-lasting, but still a great perfume.

Accessible Ginger: Jo Malone Dark Amber and Ginger Lily. The ginger is mellow and smoothed with an almost lactonic fig, a woody incense drydown.

Niche Ginger: Maria Candida Gentile Cinabre. The ginger here is more strong and also sweet. The drydown is a lot of incense. This is a ginger that makes my mouth water, and I’m going to upgrade to a larger bottle when this finishes.

Honorable mentions are Hermes Twilly Ginger which is so yummy but I never needed up buying it, and Eau de Sisley No. 3 which has a spicy ginger note. Have you tried these?

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Matiere Premiere Perfume Reviews

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Henna

I had the most dm’s ever about the Matiere Premiere samples I posted about. Someone had sent me a bunch, and I finally decided to spray them all on paper to see what they were all about, and honestly, each and every one reminded me strongly of something I’d smelled before. Fully half the people who messaged me had smelled them and agreed that there was nothing special, and the other half had something sitting in their shopping cart and they were about to check out, mostly thanks to rave reviews on Instagram.

I get the hype.

The perfumer is one who has created lots of perfumes for other brands, so it’s no surprise that he branched out on his own. The company also produces their own floral oils and that’s part of the marketing. It is cool when a brand has access to their own materials and can do quality control. That’s part of what makes Chanel and Guerlain so successful. Also, if you’re proud of what you’ve created, you’d definitely try to get them into as many hands as possible so that might be part of the reasoning behind the intense PR where everyone seems to get the latest release at the same time.

I went through a few posts with the tag, and yeah, some were raving about the perfumes, especially the tuberose one, but many just described the perfume without saying one way or another what they thought of it. A good review should describe it without really pushing you in one direction or another, but if you’re talking about Radical Rose without mentioning other rose-patchouli combos, then you’re not giving a sense of what the big picture is and that seemed to be missing. Among people who have tried these perfumes, Radical Rose did seem to be a favourite because of how spicy it is.

Ultimately, if you sampled a scent and loved it, and it moved you immediately, then you should get it and not worry about anything else. But if you’re looking for something unique, then keep moving. And if you’re sensitive at all to certain aromachemicals, then beware. All of these were rather potent and will stick around for a while. Also, they’re not cheap!

I would love to know if people have tried this line and if they have a favourite. I will definitely try these again and see how they wear on skin.

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Billie Eilish Perfume

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Henna

Text
The caramel hot chocolate of the perfume world, the kind made with water, not milk.

I didn’t realize that the new Billy Eilish perfume was available at The Bay, so when I saw it the other day, of course I had to spray some on.

Here’s how it’s supposed to smell:”Delicate sugared petals invite you to experience the alluring fragrance as you immerse yourself in the sensorial appeal of vanilla, soft spices, and cocoa. Sleek woods and musk leave a lasting impression that is warm, sensual and powerfully you.”

But honestly, it was straight-up caramel on my skin, tons of vanilla and very sweet.

It wasn’t sold out and it seems available at a few place online too. I know this was one of the most hyped launches of 2022, and then people forgot about it.

I get that creating celebrity scents is a challenge… mostly they are licensed out and the big perfume companies are looking to launch something that will be easy to wear and successful. Sweeter scents always seem to do well and since this is one-dimensional, in a spray people can decide whether they’re buying it or not.

Have you tried it? Do you own it?

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Hermes Equipage Geranium

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Henna


When you get out of the shower and don’t want to stop smelling like the spicy Imperial Leather soap, you need Equipage Geranium. It’s the plain white tee of soapy scents. A good one is versatile and fit for many occasions.

Incidentally, this is on Fragrancenet.com right now and for less than $100 it was maybe the most satisfying perfume purchase of the year. My sample of Equipage Geranium had sat in my desk drawer and I was applying at the end of the day. When it finished, a bottle was in order.

Normally, I save my new perfume purchases and open them when I need them, but I ripped into this one so I could smell it. I find the scent quite nostalgic and the only type of clean that I really like.

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Nirvana Black Review

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Henna

TextThe year is 2013 and Mary Kate and Ashley are soooo cool, so pervasive in pop culture, that they launch a line of perfume at Sephora. And they don’t just come out with one perfume. They launch two, AT THE SAME TIME, and they’re meant to be layered. The best part is that they actually smell good. Like, eyes-rolling-to-the-back-of-your-head good. Strangers-asking-you-what-you’re-wearing good.

My favourite is Black. It’s a powdery violet-sandalwood-vanilla. pretty simple, but well done. I’m wearing the perfume oil, and it’s not very strong and doesn’t last long, so I used it in my hair in an effort to get it to last longer…. And today I wore too much and you could smell me coming…but I got some compliment too.

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Favourite Guerlain Perfumes

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Henna

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A little Guerlain round-up. Samsara EDP, L’Heure Bleue EDT, and the new Aqua Allegoria Nerolia Vetiver.

The Nerolia Vetiver is the newest to me, so I won’t say much about it. I’ve only worn it once. Ok, well I will say that there’s not a lot of vetiver especially if something like Chanel Sycomore is your reference.

L’Heure Bleue… I adore this perfume, it gets me many compliments, great in the summer time… I left this bottle with my mom and it’s weird that I really idealized how it smelled which I didn’t think I could do. I have the EDP also, and it’s much stronger. I feel like I enjoy the EDT more, maybe because I got it first.

Samsara EDP… A little old bottle I got in a swap and it smells intact. Honestly, I’ve smelled a lot of new perfumes this month, maybe too many new perfumes since a top tier fancy niche store is open 10 minutes from here, but Samsara still knocks it out of the park for me. Again, spraying from samples and in store is sometimes different from owning a bottle and living with a perfume, but yeah, it’s hard to be wowed by anything when I can come home to this.

Also, an empty fireplace seems like a nice place to store your perfume collection. This ain’t my fireplace, but these are my perfumes.

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Hair Perfumes I Love

Posted on December 9, 2022 by Henna

You know when you give someone a hug and their hair smells so good that you hug a little tighter and want to hold on a little longer, inhale a little deeper, maybe try to get a little bit of their essence too so you can have the memory of that moment a bit longer or make it a bit richer?

Maybe you’re not a perfume person but you’re a scented hair person.

So here are hair perfumes… some by hair companies not perfume companies. These are some that I love and have in my collection. I use them when I want to refresh my hair but I don’t want to load it up with dry shampoo.

I mean, there have been so many times I’ve used or liked a hair product solely because of how it smelled and wanted to have a hair perfume to match. But the art of creating the scents that smell exactly like the hair products is hit or miss.

TextKevin Murphy Shimmer Shine. Golden shimmer in a bottle never looked prettier. Shine spray is light on the shimmer and heavy on the shine but my favourite thing about it is that it smells like expensive perfume – patchouli and vanilla seems to be why it smells amazing and I use it just for the scent. It lasts the whole day.

If you’ve ever used Bumble and Bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil and wished that it came as a perfume, (ok just me) now it’s available as a hair and body fragrance. Notes are vanilla and coconut so this is kind of a beachy scent perfect for when it’s cold.

Both Amika and Aveda have scents that smell exactly like their hair products so if you’ve enjoyed the sensory experience of using their products, they’ve got the scents to match. They are herbal, spa-like.

Diptyque’s Eau de Sens is the latest addition to my hair-scenting arsenal and it’s an orange blossom perfume in a bougie glass bottle.

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