Monthly Archives: July 2018

THREE WOMEN IN BLUE: : : LYS BLEU by PRINCE HENRI D’ORLEANS (1980) + OMBRE BLEU PARFUM by JEAN-CHARLES BROSSEAU (1987) + LA FEMME BLEUE by ARMANI PRIVE (2011)

The Black Narcissus

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Blue can be cold and detached – the retraction of the self into remorseful reflection. The colour of melancholy: formal, austere, even chilling, and the doleful and anguished depression of Picasso’s Blue Period, where he retreated from society following the suicide of his friend, only ever finding solace in painting almost exclusively in blue.

But blue is also the most tranquil of colours – calming and rehabilitating to the human spirit – the blue of lakes, of rain and the sea, unburdening and psychially liberating. A colour in which to plunge.

In perfume, while in traditional masculines, blue usually signifies mainly marine-centred, preconceived ideas about conservatism, money and the outdoors, it also, in more thoughtful perfumed creations, can signify a real sense of interiority and mystery.

As a person far more drawn to reds and pinks, corals and crimson ( I am a fire sign after all), I am ambivalent…

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IMITATION WOMAN by AMOUAGE (2018)

 

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Imitation Woman smells like a person choking on passion fruit (actually ylang ylang, cassis, and licorice), passing out, and micturating in the process. Blasted out with an aldehydey rush that has you involuntarily raising your eyebrows and jerking your head back in surprise (Duncan’s eyes practically popped out when he smelled it), this is one of 2018’s most uncompromising releases.

 

The name, too. Obviously, it goes without saying that in fact, as is always the case with Amouage, there is simply an Amouage for women and one for men (the latter just smelled like a passable woody iris to me), but as you find yourself chuckling at the name you just know that the creative director, Christopher Chong is doing it deliberately, provocatively, just because he loves the ring of the words.

 

An ‘imitation woman’?

 

What IS that exactly ?

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DONALD TRUMP : THE FRAGRANCE

See, I knew in advance he was going to become ‘president’.

And he has practically sucked The Black Narcissus away, as well.

Quite simply, I have been utterly transfixed by the horror. I have never been so negatively fascinated by a human being, as he purposefully tries to smash the world apart, one institution at a time.

 

 

 

( Plus, in terms of my absence, in case you were wondering, I have a book to write, by the end of August, and still haven’t finished the school term, in the biggest heat wave in Japanese history!)

 

Is it not a BIZARRE year?

 

 

I hope you are well though

 

x

The Black Narcissus

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Donald Trump is interesting in that he provokes two extreme reactions in me. On the one hand, I could write reams and reams and reams about what he represents, on analysing his self-centred, bigoted, and very dangerous impact on the world. Simultaneously, at times, he quite simply renders me speechless.

Today, tired from work and from reading about him all morning in the weekend newspapers, I am veering more towards the latter.

I have never smelled any of the fragrances released by the house of Donald Trump, nor do I intend to, so I will let other people talk about them instead. “Success” is one of his other more recent releases, ” Trump “his eponymous and original signature perfume, though that last word, perfume, is not one that the misogynist and homophobic, illiterate fools that support him would be very likely to use themselves.

No, there are no Donald…

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STOLEN : THE SECRET CHANEL PERFUME AT THE HEART OF ‘BLACK SWAN’

 

 

 

 

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Just watched Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Mother!’ again

(which my own mother HATED, possibly with good reason, though I think I kind of like it, as did Duncan and my sister)

 

 

Any thoughts?

 

via STOLEN : THE SECRET CHANEL PERFUME AT THE HEART OF ‘BLACK SWAN’

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July 1, 2018 · 1:21 am