I am a great one for natural remedies. I have been for decades. The strange thing is, I often intuit something first, check it afterwards, and then find my instincts about my imagined effects of certain botanicals to be corroborated by other sources. And lo and behold, today, after I had bought a big jar of extra virgin coconut oil and suffused it with a whole bottle of peppermint essential to be used as a pain reliever/massage oil/ muscle stimulant/general tonic, it turns out that this is supposedly one of the best home made therapies that exist for people with aching limbs such as mine (kind of obvious in this case, I know). The mixture tingles. It soothes. But most hilariously, when lathered all over my legs, and combined with Palmer’s Cocoa Butter, which I had forgotten that I had put on in other places, I smell just like a gigantic, chocolate laden box of After Eight Mints. A whole warehouse full of them.
THE AIR IS LUDICROUSLY EDIBLE.
The Black Narcissus 
Handling Max? Behaving like some ludicrous little underage femme fatale? You’re… you’re about as fatale as an after dinner mint!
!
?
Ha, sorry, it’s a quote from the film Cabaret.
I want to see it again. Does Sally smell of peppermint?
I wonder what she would be wearing – Habanita or Tabac Blond? I love that film so much. Must watch it with a special eye out for perfume bottles.
Bizarrely, and I am not making this up, I woke up yesterday with that DVD next to my bed ( I had been sorting out CDs from a box and it somehow was in there and landed next to my pillow). It is my fate to watch it this week
And Guerlain for Natalia perhaps? Après l’Ondée parfum?
Does anyone else think that the mint + chocolate combination is one of the most delicious things on this earth?
I love York Peppermint Patties!
Don’t think I know them (but I know that I would like them).
Oh yes! In the form of dinner mints and Mugler A*Men Kryptomint.
I never knew that existed. Exciting. Does it work as a combo? I quite like the Havana Cigar version of A Men actually, but would undoubtedly like the mint choco version even better.
It was launched fairly recently. I think it works very well, in that typically Mugler A*Men kind of way. Hope you can find some to try out. Very keen to know what you think of it.
Just how minty is it?
I think it’s very minty. That’s what I get first. Yum!
Yes! Cut my teeth on mint chocolate shakes as a kid, love After Eights, and just discovered pure mint hard candies wrapped around a liquid chocolate centre. When the outer shell cracks and your mouth is filled with sweet chocolate after the unadulterated mint, and it all mingles . . . ecstasy.
Love the sound of these. I wonder what the joy comes from – perhaps the sheer contrast of the fresh, eye-opening mint with the eye-closing, velvety orgasm of the chocolate…..
I possibly, but not definitely, like the orange/chocolate combination even more, although ultimately, nothing for me compares to the joy of the hazelnut / noisette chocolate fruition, which is one of humanity’s greatest achievements.
It’s funny, though, because I generally don’t like mint as a note in my perfumes, nor too much in food really except in the Greek context. Weren’t those mint chocolate shakes a tad too much?
The joy of mint and chocolate? You nailed it.
Oh yeah, orange and chocolate. And yes, the ultimate hazelnut and chocolate. Mmm. I also kinda dig coffee and chocolate.
I’m with you on mint as a fragrance note and in food. So right about Greek food, though. And Lebanese and Turkish. And Moroccan.
Lovely. But in perfume? Or have we had this conversation before?
We might have touched on the mint theme with, um, maybe AG Nuit Etoilée? It worked for me there, and also in Guerlain AA Herba Fresca. Otherwise, there seems to be a toothpaste association that’s a little hard to shake!
I gave both of those perfumes away to visiting guests, actually, last week.
There is no mint left in my collection!
You are FREE!!!!!
x
You Or Someone Like You is a nice low minty hum, if you want that in a perfume. But I’d go for hazelnut and chocolate every time.
You smell divine! My favorite is Dr. Bronners Arnica-Menthol Organic Magic Balm, which also contains Cannabis oil. Works like a charm for painful joints.
Wow. They would never have anything cannabis related in ultra marijuana phobic Japan, but I am obsessed with, and currently using, Dr Bronner’s Peppermint liquid soap. Just leaving some of that on my knees after a shower with the stuff is what led me to make the coconut mint salve. I will look into the salve – thanks for the suggestion.
I would like to comment on your next blog, but currently lack the brain power to do so. All I can say is: mint chocolate (and orange chocolate, come to think of it) has really never “done it” for me as a flavour combination, I’m afraid, but I adore a mixture of raspberry and chocolate, and coffee and chocolate. Nigella Lawson’s chocolate raspberry pudding cake is a decadently rich combination of all three and I have made it many times. Despite my ambivalence regarding mint the mint-choc combo, I do love an After Eight. (and I think Nuit Etoilee is nice, but have never worn it). I think its the 70s nostalgia thing again, and the fact that my grandma would serve them proudly on a plate after Sunday lunches in her stiflingly tiny sitting room. My sister and I used to tear the corners off the wrappers, stick our fingers in them, and say that they were Sindy Pants (ahem). I took a pack of them to a posh dinner party earlier in the year, to see the reception, and I was in fact met with a mix of horror and bewilderment on the faces of the hosts. (And I did get drunk and tell the Sindy pants story. I think I was the only one who laughed). Only one friend (also posh, nice) stood up for my choice and said he was a fan. (What can I say? He also likes the Divine Comedy. Such are our tastes.) x
The idea of a posh dinner party is sheer hell for me, especially with people who are over serious about the ‘level’ of everything and who lack a sense of humour.
Love the idea of your grandmother proudly serving the After Eights up on a plate, though. Class, and its horrors, runs so strongly through everything you write here.
I would love, love, love one day to try your chocolate raspberry pudding cake, even if on the whole I find the raspberry chocolate combination, though undoubtedly delicious, strangely suffocating. I feel as if the fresh raspberries are being poisoned and asphyxiated by the chocolate (with mint, it is potent enough to shine through). Tom Ford Tuscan Leather has a similar effect – a strong and lovely raspberry note drowned out by a creosote fence.
I thought I was the only one who found the raspberry chocolate combo strangely suffocating. I also can’t do the whole-strawberries-dipped-in-chocolate thing. Usually the strawberries are those huge “impressive” California ones, signalling ripe red on the outside, but actually pale and painfully underripe on the inside, and they are served ice cold to keep the chocolate firm. The chocolate never melts, never gets unctuous and flavourful, just creates a weird juxtaposition of textures in the mouth — waxy chocolate, mushy-gritty strawberry.
I don’t know if this is just a North American thing, but the height of forever-déclassé dessert construction here is the Ambrosia Salad. Canned mandarin oranges, canned pineapple chunks, shredded dried coconut, miniature marshmallows, sour cream, stirred together and left overnight in the fridge so the marshmallows get all gloopy. Can’t believe I’m confessing to this but . . . yes, Guilty Pleasure.
with coffee for breakfast. I WANT IT.
You do? What a relief! I thought I might have lost my membership in the Cool Club. Your open-mindedness has reached dizzying new heights, dear Neil. Wow. I am thrilled!!!!
Dear your multi-levels of potential irony have lost me here. Clarify!
For the record though, I fucking HATE dinner parties.
I wasn’t sure if you were having me on, actually, so was uncertain, yet giddy if you really meant you liked the sound of it. Yes, my response was confusing, and sorry for that. I was confused myself. 😉 I think Ambrosia Salad actually sounds rather awful and many people here wouldn’t be caught within a city block of it — those who even know of its existence, since it’s quite a kitsch, 60’s thing.
I can understand your take on dinner parties. Fuck ’em.
As for kitsch though , that is only a good word for me. We couldn’t live without it.
I should qualify : I enjoy dinner parties ( or more like having dinner, either at ours, or theirs), with real friends once in a while, to catch up, but I can’t bear showcase affairs where people are just making ‘witty repartee’ and smiling incessantly and presenting themselves in the best possible light. Plus, as you know, I like quite simple food. When things are uptight and too polished I either just want to leave or become boorish and drunk
I knew there was that distinction: between the dreaded “dinnah pahtee” and a good meal with good friends.