Monday, May 26, 2025

1907 Vanilla Dry

created with Ideogram AI and Adobe Photoshop
1907 Vanilla Dry
Ylang-Ylang, Orange, Mandarin Orange, Tiare Flower, Jasmine, Lily-of-the-Valley, Vanilla, Coconut, Sandalwood, White Musk

In April of 2024, I requested a "perfume prescription" from Suzy and Nicola of the On the Scent podcast and posted the results here. If you don't want to go back and read, here's a synopsis: I had tried Matiere Premier Vanilla Powder multiple times and was repelled by a stabby mystery note. Hubby seemed to enjoy it though, so I requested a dry woody scent with a background of amber or vanilla that could be similar. Three vanilla-based scents were recommended: TF Tobacco Vanille; Maya Njie Vanilj; and 1907 Vanilla Dry.

I was able to sniff the first two pretty easily, but I couldn't source a reasonably priced sample of the third scent in the US. And then I met Angie, of @angiesmellstheroses on Tiktok and IG. She happened to have a bottle of Vanilla Dry and sent me a small decant. Rather than a being the requested woodsy vanilla, Vanilla Dry is quite floral. Additionally, there was something oddly mentholated about it that displeased me, so the sample was banished to a bag of similarly rejected vials that were to be shared with others. One day not long ago, I was sorting my bag of disliked samples to pack some up for a friend. I decided to try Vanilla Dry again, as it had been 6 months since the first attempt. Surprise! The second time, I liked it. And the third time, a few days later, I loved it. The fourth time, the sample was all gone and I had to buy a bottle. I found it at Jovoy, a Parisian perfume purveyor with great prices (though not a discounter), and added it to my cart with a bunch of samples from unfamiliar brands, a backup bottle of Essential Parfums Orange x Santal for hubby, and a bottle of Trudon Bruma for me. (One needs to purchase €400 to get free shipping. €45 is a little steep for postage, the equivalent of 10 samples or a partial bottle, heck, a decent dinner with a glass of wine, even a latte at the Towson Town Center Starbucks. I was going to buy the other two scents eventually, so why not now?) 

I'm not sure why I had such an about-face with this scent. The first time I smelled it was in the fall, and the second time in the spring, so the temperatures weren't all that different. I will admit that I find vanilla-heavy scents a bit disgusting in the heat, but that wasn't the case here. While jasmine isn't a favorite note, I actually do like ylang-ylang and lily-of-the-valley and generally have no issue with tiare. In fact, I've recently been looking for a tropical coconut scent in the same family as Azuree Soleil/Bronze Goddess but lighter, perhaps with some green notes (Heeley Palm, formerly Cocobello, is a contender). Oddly, despite the tiare and coconut, Vanilla Dry doesn't come off as a tropical scent at all. Apart from the gentle yellow floralcy in the early stages of the fragrance, it's a vanilla scent from start to finish. For me, the coconut is more of a texture than an actual smell. Imagine a jar of coconut grated so finely that it's nearly a dry dust, and nestled within are a couple of vanilla beans. The vanilla perfumes the coconut, and the coconut keeps the sweetness of the vanilla within acceptable levels (for me). I really don't get the orange notes at the opening, and find the sandalwood and musk to be pretty subtle, but I'm really fine with what's left. Now, I don't know if Vanilla Dry is indeed dry enough to wear in the summer, but it's worked nicely so far this spring in temperatures up to the mid-70s.

One thing I don't like about 1907 Vanilla Dry isn't about the fragrance at all--it's the cap. It's a heavy metal sphere that is a bit awkward to remove. The first time I pulled it off the bottle, I wasn't prepared for the weight. It bounced out of my hand and across the room, narrowly missing the window (which it would have cracked, I'm sure), and clattered noisily across the bathroom tile. Now, I'm all for a sturdy bottle situation, but I'd rather have a hollow plastic cap than one that could be used as a weapon. Other than that, it's good stuff, and I am so glad I gave it a second chance.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

Monday, May 19, 2025

A Favorite: Must de Cartier

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Cartier Must de Cartier
Galbanum, Brazilian Rosewood, Aldehydes, Bergamot, Lemon, Green Mandarin, Peach, Pineapple, Leather, Carnation, Vetiver, Orris Root, Musk, Ylang-Ylang, Yellow Narcissus, Neroli, Rose, Jasmine, Orchid, Amber, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Tonka Bean, Civet, Vetiver

Must, released in 1981, was Cartier's first fragrance. Scents from that decade tend to be stereotyped as brash, suitable as a finishing touch for women who favor big shoulder pads, big earrings, even bigger hair, and lots of blusher. That may have been true of Giorgio and Poison. Must, however, seems much more from the era of classical fragrance that preceded it, containing a complex cocktail of numerous notes that are so well-blended that few stand out, apart from the unusual combination of top notes. 

I'm pretty sure I first encountered Must in the early 90s, which would have been after it was reformulated. I received my bottle as a gift in the early 2000s, and its scent seems to have always been this way to me. In those days--before I understood fragrance notes and the way they were supposed to smell--rather than perceiving greenness in Must's galbanum top note, I felt it smelled...brown. The peculiar combination of earthy galbanum with some citrus and fizzy aldehydes, backed up with pineapple and lots of flowers somehow evoked chocolate. It's like a whiff of an open can of cocoa powder, a bit bitter and somewhat dusty, but recognizably chocolate. Though I now know that galbanum is considered a green note, Must is still far more brown in character, especially as the tapestry of floral notes is rather dusty and mingled with hints of leather, powder, and civet in the base.

I have read comparisons to other scents of the time, particularly Calvin Klein's Obsession. While they share similar bones (citrus, sandalwood, musky drydown), they are entirely different fragrances. I wore Obsession in the 80s, in college, and it seems far more fun and youthful with its vanilla and spice overtones, while Must is far more grown-up. Though this is said from a distance; I haven't owned both fragrances at the same time. (That's about to change--thanks, Fragrancenet!) In any case, Must de Cartier is a beautiful classic fragrance that deserves to be discovered and worn today and beyond.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Remembering Mom

created with Ideogram AI and Adobe Photoshop
I lost my Mom on February 12, 2001, when I was 35 years old. She had suffered with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus for many years, but her death was still a huge shock. I had gotten married only 4 months prior and was barely settled in my new life and my new home when my world was shattered. Though my Dad--with whom I had always gotten along and loved very much--was still alive, with the death of my mother, I considered myself an orphan.

Mom was my best friend when I was a kid, but after I became an adult, we didn't always get along. I was out and about, living my life, seldom considering that she must have been in constant pain. It didn't help that she expected us to be mind-readers rather than communicating her needs, but I should have been more sensitive. Still, I had led a rather sheltered life, preferring books and music to activities with friends, when suddenly, in my late 20s, I had become Miss Popularity. Rather than spending time with Mom, re-re-watching our favorite movies--Evil Under the Sun and The 12 Chairs among them--I was going to multiple parties every weekend, hanging out with newfound friends (some of whom turned out not to be friends at all). What's the big deal? you're probably wondering. Everybody goes through this. That might be true. It's more than fine for able-bodied parents who have supportive spouses and friends to lose their children to their own adulthood. But Mom really only had my brother and me. And I could have done better.

Mom liked perfume, but she wasn't into it nearly as much as I was. She didn't wear it every day, except in the summer when she'd have a splash from the giant bottle of Jean Nate that she kept on the top of the toilet tank. If she went out anywhere nice--which was very rare--she'd apply some Wind Song. She kept its charming crown-shaped bottle among the various toiletries and bath products in a drawer at the bottom of the linen closet. Once in a while I'd dig through the treasures and pull out the small round orbs filled with multicolored bath oils, occasionally squashing one through my fingers and making a greasy mess. I also liked playing with the little rose-shaped guest soaps, though I thought they stank. Actually, I thought all of it stank, especially the strong-smelling stuff in the curvy pale blue bottle: Youth Dew, which I called "Youth Pee-yew" or "Youth DooDoo." But as the cliché goes, "the apple doesn't far from the tree." Little did I know that similar spicy amber scents like Obsession and KL would become my signatures in my 20s. I particularly loved Germaine Monteil Bakir, which I discovered in a catalog offering discount beauty products. Mom and I would pore through those mailings and order a bunch of various necessities, like lipsticks that changed color depending on one's pH, bars of Magno black soap, and vintage perfumes like Jean Couturier Coriandre and the aforementioned Bakir

Later in life, Mom gave up on her old fragrances and started to wear different things. Back in the early 1990s, when grown-ups wore Victoria's Secret lingerie, they released their first fragrance--Victoria. That was my mother's name, so it called to her. It came in a classy and expensive-looking fluted bottle with a blue faux gemstone on the cap and smelled gently of raspberry and rose and other things that I no longer recall. After the success of Victoria, Mom tried their next scent, Rapture, a floral amber that was a bit sweet. I hated it, referring to it as "Rupture." Mom didn't like it as well as Victoria, but she wore it anyway. Around that time, she also discovered Guerlain Jardins de Bagatelle, a heady white floral from the 80s. I have never been a fan of gardenia, tuberose, or jasmine, but somehow I liked this one, especially on my mother. She called it "Bagels," because she thought calling it by the French name was pretentious. One of my cousins gave her a fresh bottle of JdB every Christmas, though she didn't wear the scent frequently enough to use a bottle a year. After Mom died, I found three unopened bottles in her closet, and I regret now that I sold all of them on eBay. For a time, Mom also wore Gap Heaven, a light white floral musk. I wore it too, and we both thought the juice in her bottle smelled better on me, though both bottles were of the same vintage. I still have them, but I would rather have Mom.

I got my hands on new bottles of Jean Nate and Wind Song and have reviewed them below. A couple years back I bought a used bottle of Victoria on eBay, knowing that there was a very good chance that the scent had turned. It had, and not just the top notes. The only thing salvageable is the pretty fluted bottle. From what I remember, this fragrance smelled lightly of raspberry and more strongly of rose, but that could be a false memory. As for Jardins de Bagatelle, I only remember it being a bold white floral, elegant and complex, and like nothing else. It's a little spendy for a blind buy (for me...I try to stick to $50 and under if I'm throwing my money away), but I might try to get a sample or decant in the future and write about it.

Revlon Jean Nate After Bath Splash
Lemon, Bergamot, Lavender, Geranium, Spicy Notes, Rose, Lily-of-the-Valley, Jasmine, Musk, Sandalwood, Virginia Cedar, Tonka Bean
This doesn't smell anything like I remember. Back in the 70s, to my nose, it was an in-your-face kinda citrus fragrance with some lavender. It's much more subdued these days, still citrussy, and far more soapy than I recall, even a tad spicy. Something about it smells stale and dusty, but only briefly, like a ghost of fragrances past. And then, surprisingly, the dry-down is musky and a little sandalwood-y and quite pleasant. If this stuff were only the drydown, I might love it. I wish I had been able to try the cologne as well as the much lighter and more fleeting "after bath splash" concentration--what Mom always wore--to see if there's a difference, but I'm not curious enough to hunt down a bottle.

Prince Matchabelli Wind Song
Coriander, Tarragon, Neroli, Orange Leaf, Bergamot, Mandarin Orange, Lemon, Carnation, Cloves, Ylang-Ylang, Rose, Brazilian Rosewood, Orris Root, Jasmine, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Cedar, Musk, Benzoin, Amber
I really had no recollection of the smell of Wind Song, only the memory of disliking it. Going by the notes, I should love this stuff: a spicy citrus-forward floral with a musky amber drydown. The opening is quite mid-century vintage-y, cold-cream-like, with lots of smooth, not sharp, citrus notes mingled with muted florals. It's far more pleasant than I remember, but I'm sure what I disliked about it so much was the soapiness. I enjoy a rooty iris note these days, and there are glimpses of  that in Wind Song, along with a good amount of spicy, clove-like carnation. The drydown is gently woodsy, with persistent carnation and orris. While I can't say my mother smelled exactly like this scent during my childhood, Wind Song is definitely the smell of a mother from my parents' generation. And if one is into vintage-style scents, this one is still well done and totally wearable.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

Monday, May 5, 2025

What I've Been Wearing So Far in 2025

created with Ideogram AI and lots of Adobe Photoshop
Though my desk is a messy disaster most of the time, I am pretty organized. I like lists, and I am forever updating various Google My Maps with places I plan to visit along with directions on how to get to those places. In 2020, I started a spreadsheet of daily dinners so I would be able to keep track of leftovers and be better able to plan meals (plus we were locked down; there wasn't much else to do). And in January of 2025, I started a SOTD spreadsheet to see which of my many fragrances I wear more often or none at all. 

I don't quite have enough scents to be able to wear a different one every day for 365 days, and I vow never to get near that many. I currently have 200-ish bottles and around two dozen travel sprays (at least according to my Fragrantica wardrobe), so I would have a good part of the year covered. Some scents, however, I might not wear for a few years in a row. Others--usually newer additions to the collection--I will wear more frequently. Until, of course, some new purchases usurp their places in my cold black heart--a regular occurrence. 

In the first third of this year, the 120-day period between January 1 and April 30, 2025, I wore 101 different fragrances. Thirteen of those were samples, only one of which I have since purchased (Perfumer H Rain Wood). On eleven separate days, I layered 2 or more fragrances, and on thirteen others, I wore 2 scents on the same day but at different times. (When I say "wore," I mean applied to my décolletage area, where I normally wear scent. I don't count those I sampled on my forearms or backs of hands, which would raise the number of total scents by several dozen.)

The fragrance I wore most often was D.S. & Durga Pistachio, four times on its own and twice layered with another scent (once each with 4160 Tuesdays Rhubarb & Custard and Sarah Baker Peach's Revenge). Tied for second place were Byredo Gypsy Water and Celine Saint-Germain-Des-Pres, with four wears each.

Several scents I wore thrice (Buchart Colbert Le Bain de Lulu, Maison Louis Marie Bois de Balincourt, Peach's Revenge, A.N. Other WD/18, Gallagher Mists of TimeD.S. & Durga Wear at Maximum Volume, Perfumer H Rain Wood, Profumum Roma Battito D'Ali, Hermes Barenia, and Chanel Paris-Edimbourg). Sixty-five different scents were only worn once, either by themselves, layered, or applied later in the day after my first fragrance faded/I got tired of smelling it. And of course the rest were worn twice. 

Does this info surprise me? Not really. I already knew that I'm pretty fickle when it comes to fragrance, and that I could never be a "signature scent" kinda gal. I don't even really understand why someone would want to smell like the same thing every day forever. I rarely want to smell like the same thing two days in a row, and didn't in the first four months of 2025. What I do find somewhat interesting is that I wore 88 different scents from my collection of just under 230, or about a third, over a third of a year. I highly doubt I'll go through the remaining 2/3 of my collection this year. Several things no longer interest me and should probably be re-homed. Some other perfumes have been discontinued and I'm in no hurry to use up the precious few drops I have left. Seven fragrances I consider "holiday" scents, and will likely rotate only those during the month of December. But we'll see. I think I will repeat this exercise again in early September and then again around January 1, 2026. 

Do you wear a different scent every day? How many do you think you wear over the course of four months? Would love to chat about it in the comments.
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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.