hortus conclusus

This post marks the first in a series of meditations on celebrity perfumes. I am a bit strapped for spending money at the moment, but feeling the perfume ache. My solution: find the cheap gems and write and think about them for awhile! Celebrity perfumes are justifiably poo-pooed my many perfume lovers for the obvious reasons; they are crassly commercial, often built by a committee, and are part of an assembly line of products meant to help the top 1% of artists and famous-for-being-famous people (and their handlers) reach even higher levels of wealth.  All this is true. But sometimes, someone on the celebrity team thinks to retain a great perfume artist, and even better, let her do her work. Then the rare but wonderful happens--the world is blessed with a cheap, beautiful, high-concept (because attached to the ineffable but fundamental qualities of some celebrity) fragrance.  SO now for the first celeb offering on my shelf: My Life for Mary J Blige. Gorgeous, steamy gardenia....

I really like J-lo’s Deseo . I know we are supposed to scorn celebrity fragrances until they convince us otherwise with some exceptional quality or other, but I have liked this fragrance from the get-go. You know how a pineapple’s acidity makes your tongue tingle in that weird way that only pineapples can accomplish? Well, Deseo makes that same thing happen in my mouth when  I smell it—isn’t that strange? It is pineapple on me, but not in a bonne belle type of way. It is pineapple in a difficult, acidic, slightly green, sour sort of way. I really love the composition, actually—lots of painful pineapple sitting atop a lovely chypre structure, with a little green coconut thrown in to make consumers realize (if they haven’t already, the dullards) that it is ‘tropical.’ I don’t think of this as a ‘fruity floral’ at all in fact—more of a sour chypre. And then, there’s the bottle. I LOOVVEE this bottle. At first, I thought: tacky. Then I thought: hey, it’s kinda cool how it is desi...

Love perfume and want to start a collection of well-composed scents but get sticker shock when you look at the niche prices? Never fear, I am here to provide you with a list of really beautiful fragrances you can find for under 15 dollars a bottle. You can build your collection and still stay within budget. Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel —one of the weirdest men’s fougeres out there. Bitter, harsh, and gorgeous. anything by Pacifica —I love this company, and think almost all of their fragrances are well-done, if a bit short-lived at times, The solid perfumes (usually $8-9 a pop) are great for a base layer to make a sprayed fragrance stick around a bit longer. Priscilla Presley roses and more --   a much more delicate rosy-floral. Ultrafeminine.   jovan musk-- If you like musk, this is for you. A straightforward musk. G reat for layering experiments as well   The Perfumer’s Workshop Tea Rose —I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it now. One o...