Reminiscing

If anyone is wondering why I haven't been writing much about scents lately that's because I was reminiscing about the days when I used to be healthy and didn't have a runny nose. :) As you can guess, I have a cold (again!) and my sense of smell isn't really as good as usual. Which is not stopping me anymore. I decided to just apply larger sample quantities so they can force their way through my congested nose. It's working so I won't be reminiscing on my missing health but talk about 2 Reminiscence scents I got.

My best friend was in London last week so I decided to use the opportunity to get a charm from Reminiscence and with it I got samples of Patchouli and Etoile de Rem. I've been smelling some Bonds recently and was left disappointed so I wasn't expecting that I'd like both Reminiscences.

Notes for Patchouli: cedar, patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, vanilla, tonka bean, labdanum.

As you might remember, I'm trying to figure notes before actually reading and this time I was very happy once I read the list of notes. All those I was able to register on my own were there (along with some others I should have recognized, but, hey, small steps). :)

Anyway, it started boozy sweet which pointed me straight at vanilla and labdanum. You know it smelled like rum patchouli. I wish it remained so but the rest wasn't bad either. At some point I realized that sweetness went away and what I was getting was a rougher version of this scent, no longer rum playful but more serious and I realized that green hinting wood note was vetiver. Then it was time for the notes and when I read cedar I realized I was smelling it all along but didn't realize it. Well, like I said, small steps. :)

The second one was Etoile de Rem (which I thought spelled Rien and kept wondering how come google can't find it). :) Then I went to Reminiscence site and realized my mistake.

This is one of their summer scents and it is described as a marine scent. That didn't sound promising. Marine sounds too much like aquatic and I run in the other direction when I smell that. The strange thing is this one wafts around and you think you get an aquatic accord in the air but when I smell my wrist, I don't get it. That's really good.

So, I tried figuring out notes before reading them for this as well. No luck. The best I could come up with was airy and nice, not aquatic. And then (this is turning into a problem for me), I thought I was getting hints of tuberose. So, I checked the notes: citruses, bergamot, orange blossom, coconut, ylang-ylang, jasmine, sea water, coumarin, musk, vanilla.

I completely missed the citruses. I mean it did smell airy and light but I can't believe that citrus didn't occur to me. Anyway, I read all those white flowers and the list as you can see doesn't contain tuberose. The only thing I can say is that perhaps the combination of ylang-ylang and jasmine reminds me of tuberose? Or I just can't distinguish between jasmine and tuberose.

My collection does not contain a cool, fresh, non-aquatic summer fragrance. I think this might be it - it smells like tuberose/jasmine wafting on a sea breeze. Lovely really.

Pictures taken from: http://www.reminiscence.fr/