Showing posts with label Reminiscence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reminiscence. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

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/

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Quick almond thoughts


Ok, let me start by saying, I hate marzipan (and yes, that means I hate Mozartkugeln as well, marzipan and pistachio - yuck). So one would think I'd skip over perfumes having almond notes, wouldn't one? Nope, that can't be said about me. I ordered samples of Reminiscence Do Re Mi La series (they aren't actually called that I think, but that's how I remember them) and randomly choosing 2 of the 4 I have, both I chose had almond note in them. Even after I read that there is an almond note in them, it didn't register that it might be too much for me, what with all other notes (and there is a whole bunch of notes listed for all of them). Well, I was wrong. And even though they don't smell the same (Do Re and Mi Fa) they smell of almonds (in a way too sweet a manner) that all I can say is, thank god it finally washed off.

I am usually not a person who says bad things about anybody or anything, so I'll temper my initial comments with - if you like almonds and sweet perfume, you are probably going to love these. I don't think they are really bad, I mean I did get some fig in Do Re around that ALMOND, and I enjoyed Mi Fa's cocos citrus opening for the first 2 minutes (before what I thought of as cocos actually turned out to be almond mixed with citruses but not yet recognizable as almond for me). I would so much love to be a fan of sweet but I am not - I don't even eat desserts if they don't come as complete chocolate (Sacher cake is not that, having jam in it- whoever thought that was nice?! - everyone except for me it seems) or as a strudel. So, believe me, something that smells like a child dipped in marzipan and sprinkled with cookies and fruit, is not something that I will wear (I'm not going to say never, because, you know, you never know) ;) - but definitely not in the near future. Honestly, I can't say it doesn't smell happy, since it evoked a child in marzipan for me (and the only person not happy in that situation might be the child's mother) but, I think both of them call for a high sweetness tolerance.

Hmm, it now seems this wasn't so quick and not only on almonds and not really a review, but I had to get it off my chest. :)

Do Re
Head: Green Notes, Fig
Heart: Heliotrope Accord, Almond, Virginia Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Indonesian Patchouli
Base: Infusion of Madagascan Vanilla, Brazilian Tonka Bean, Siamese Benzoin, Musk

Mi Fa
Head: Sicilian Bergamot, Italian Mandarin, Florida Orange, Bitter Almond, French Lavender, Tunisian Rosemary, Indian Mint, Green & Ozone Notes
Heart: Neroli, Tunisian Patite Grain, Madagascan Black Pepper, Jasmine
Base: Brazilian Tonka Bean, Madagascan Vanilla, Virginian Cedarwood, Indonesian Patchouli, Sandalwood, Amber, Musk


P.S. Is it possible that one note can dominate so much to ruin the rest? I mean, I could detect some other notes but only around almond.