Realizing the profound loneliness of being an adult. You’re in it for you and nobody but you, and Bottega Veneta edp is all that in a bottle.
Maybe because I was having a day, I did the odd thing of spraying this at work instead of at home, and everyone who stepped inside the door paused thoughtfully at the threshold.
I was told that I smelled like the natural remnants of a perfume.
That this was probably how my house smelled.
Was I wearing something French today?
This is the only perfume that makes sense, because I’m still leaving into the Iris, and leather, and this is a powdery suede. There’s some Violet too, but without being candy-like. Maybe I wore this because I was feeling like a melted lipstick and I needed to smell like it. I wore my favourite perfume that day, and saw people, and found joy in that.
Bottega Veneta is adjacent to Guerlain’s Bois d’Armenie but without as much benzoin and vanilla making it less sweet. It’s also missing the smokiness so it’s not an incense scent as much as an Iris leather. It’s a closer dupe of Armani Privé’s Cuir Amethyste which is also by Michel Almairac, but of course Bottega Veneta is a fraction of the price and none of the awards.
Michel Almairac has a line called Parle Moi de Parfum, and there’s an orris perfume in there that I wouldn’t mind trying, and I need to see if I’ve come across samples from the brand. Apparently, he figured out a new way to create this lovely sueded leather accord, and it’s a secret and he won’t tell.
Tell me your favourite powdery perfume.
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.
