Lipstick Rose Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle 2000

The perfume actually smells like lipstick. Whoosh, I'm 6 years old, it's Carnival, and Hokulani - my little sister - and I are trying on the costumes that Mom sewed for us. We carefully slip into them so the pins don't poke us. For us, Mom takes the ones with the round, colorful heads.

At the Carnival ball, we wear our costumes. Mom dabs her lipstick on our cheeks, blends it a little, and somehow we like it and somehow we don't. Our mom hardly ever wears lipstick. There's one in the bathroom, shiny pink, I love this color and every now and then I take off the cap and smell it. It's just the feeling on our cheeks when she draws a circle with the lipstick and blends it that we don't really like.

Hokulani wears a top made of grass-green felt with appliqués on it - a lantern, a bright red fly agaric with white spots, and a hammer. On her head is a pointed cap, also made of grass-green felt.
For me, Mom sewed a skirt from lilac fabric, like the flower cup of the bellflower. And a hat - on my head sits a flower, with a short, dark green stem on top.
With the costumes, Mom guessed our souls - later, when I outgrew the bellflower, she sewed me a princess dress. And Hokulani will be a bellflower until her costume becomes too small as well. Princess - no, Hokulani never wanted to be that, and I never wanted to be a garden gnome. The costumes suited our childlike souls, and somehow I am still a princess today, and Hokulani is delicate like a fairy in the bellflower grove.

All of this is Lipstick Rose for me, which smells very similar to the lipstick back then, also with that slightly greasy note. Maybe it's the blend of rose and violet that I like so much. Vanilla gives the scent a light sweetness, vetiver prevents it from becoming too sticky. According to the official website, the top notes are grapefruit, violet, and rose, the heart consists of blackcurrant and iris, and the base is vanilla, sandalwood, and musk. The scent doesn't develop much, and I can't pick out blackcurrant, grapefruit, or iris. I float on clouds and feel happy. I remember how Mom used to put on makeup, which was very rare and gave her something mysterious, because Hokulani and I didn't know her that way. We watched her, and when she was gone, a hint of lipstick and the act of beautifying lingered in the bathroom, so we didn't feel so abandoned when she went out with Dad and an older cousin watched over us. This scent reminds me of that other world, when Mom transformed like a butterfly. When I wear this scent, I feel more elegant and stylish...a little more ladylike...and I keep playing with the thought of making it my signature scent. Every time I wear it, I feel more beautiful...and think of the old lipstick and our mother's tailoring skills...