03/31/2020

FvSpee
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FvSpee
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CoViD comments, eleventh piece: red roses on white linen
Thanks for turning on the curfew entertainment program again, and for the many nice and witty replicas of the first season's contributions. I rarely managed to answer personally, please forgive me, but I was happy and amused anyway.
Actually, after weeks of preparation, today should have been my first day home office. But our bureaucracy is so ingenious that it manages to have the necessary permits on the one hand and the laptops on the other hand, probably on the very day when the epidemic is over. Or on the day when all employees have to go to the isolation ward anyway and can't work at home or in the office. In any case, I have to (or am allowed to) drive to work again tomorrow. Therefore I bought a couple of masks made of thick cotton fabric for myself (except that the first ones tested positive at Mrs. von Spee's place of work). The seamstress of my favourite colleague has switched to mask production for small needs, eight euros a piece, with noseband and everything else and washable. I'm impressed by the quality of the workmanship, it's a business card, I'm going to have my clothes changed there in the future. And if Berlin should copy it now like Jena and doesn't let anybody without a mask outside the door, we are prepared in any case.
With White Linen I had naturally expected a fresh underwear scent. Many of the scents from the "clean bear genre" are named after white textiles. There are several with the name "White Cotton" for example. I don't know all the clean bear scents, but the three most distinctive ones I tested and remember are "Blanche" (White) by Byredo, "Linge Blanc" (White bedding or linen) by Lothanique and "Chemise Blanche" (White shirt) by LM. These three are really all similar, with decidedly fresh ingredients in the top note (citrus, or pepper, or freesia, sometimes with aldehydes), then clean flowers in the heart note (preferably rose, lily of the valley or violet) and a base with a good proportion of white musk. Therefore the three fragrances are similar in their overall impression. I like all three of them in their own way, whereby the order B - LB - CB is also the direction from "soft, rosy and warm" to "cool, fresh and firm". Byredo's "Blanche" is already a rather heavy floral and musky softwummer, which is not easy to wear for men. "Chemise Blanche" by LM is a perfectly ironed, maybe starched, white shirt and therefore completely unisex. I finally bought it after two years of sneaking around with drums.
Here now I had expected a fragrance that is even cooler and firmer than the Mazzone, because of the name "white linen": linen is rather hard and firm and has a cooling effect in summer. But I got (as a sample) a fragrance that is even (much) more feminine than Byredo, which is why, despite its iconic beauty, the name only gets 6 points for misleading consumers. Deceptive packaging, so to speak. But that doesn't detract from the beauty of the fragrance (for those who like that, which will mostly be ladies), because it is very beautiful. No question. And it is also declared as a women's fragrance, so I can't really complain about that
The fresh, cool, sparkling top note is completely skipped here. There is no citric or peppery note, it begins immediately with the rose. I tested the fragrance without looking at the pyramid and my first impression was: Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose. And lily of the valley. A bold, strong, sweet, dewy rose. And lily of the valley. Not sticky-sweet, the rose, no, already somehow upbeat and strong, but still very surprisingly dense-floral-rose right at the beginning. Jasmine I do not feel. Did I mention that lilies of the valley also play a part?
When this first floral firework has subsided a bit, I notice incredibly strong soapy notes, wherever they come from. I like soapy scents a lot, and I like that here too, but it's very feminine again. I say, a mixture of the good old curd soap (which reminds me of my grandma, which is meant positively) and a round women's perfume soap wrapped in a very playful tissue paper with floral ornaments (which actually reminds me of my grandma as well).
As it progresses, it swings back and forth between really heavy seas of flowers and a soft, creamy creaminess, into which traces of slightly dirty (not so white as a flower, see Pluto's commentary, which is just as great as Rosaviola's) animal notes are mixed. And it waves and waves and waves and waves. For the durability is, with at least considerable sillage, monstrous for a clean fragrance, if it is one at all. I put two sprayers on the forearm and after nine hours and one wash it was still waving. So here the claim "eau de parfum" is to be taken seriously, if not understated. Dose sparingly!
The name of the perfumer aroused my interest. Sophia Grojsman. Grojsman (or Hroismann etc.) is a typical name for Eastern European Jews; most of the bearers of this name were murdered in the Holocaust. The Ukrainian Prime Minister of the years 2016 to 2019, also of Jewish origin, was also called Grojsman. According to my research, Sophia Grosjman was born in March 1945 (!) in the "Bloodlands" (Timothy Snyder) of Eastern Europe, in the now Belarusian Lubcha of all places, which was the scene of the worst crimes against humanity during the war. She came with her family to Poland, where she studied chemistry and from where she later emigrated to the USA. There she became a star of the perfume scene, with countless awards, high professional positions in large fragrance companies and honorary posts to this day. From the list of her fragrances, however, there are only a few that tell me anything, including the famous "Eternity" by Calvin Klein. She is said to have always had a special love for rose scents and to have mastered their use in perfumes (I can confirm this with "White Linen"); and this love for roses is said to go back to her earliest childhood. What kind of childhood it was, and what memories of her parents little Sophia had to witness and relive, can only be guessed at in the dark. And it reminds us that human malice is far more murderous than the most dangerous virus.
Actually, after weeks of preparation, today should have been my first day home office. But our bureaucracy is so ingenious that it manages to have the necessary permits on the one hand and the laptops on the other hand, probably on the very day when the epidemic is over. Or on the day when all employees have to go to the isolation ward anyway and can't work at home or in the office. In any case, I have to (or am allowed to) drive to work again tomorrow. Therefore I bought a couple of masks made of thick cotton fabric for myself (except that the first ones tested positive at Mrs. von Spee's place of work). The seamstress of my favourite colleague has switched to mask production for small needs, eight euros a piece, with noseband and everything else and washable. I'm impressed by the quality of the workmanship, it's a business card, I'm going to have my clothes changed there in the future. And if Berlin should copy it now like Jena and doesn't let anybody without a mask outside the door, we are prepared in any case.
With White Linen I had naturally expected a fresh underwear scent. Many of the scents from the "clean bear genre" are named after white textiles. There are several with the name "White Cotton" for example. I don't know all the clean bear scents, but the three most distinctive ones I tested and remember are "Blanche" (White) by Byredo, "Linge Blanc" (White bedding or linen) by Lothanique and "Chemise Blanche" (White shirt) by LM. These three are really all similar, with decidedly fresh ingredients in the top note (citrus, or pepper, or freesia, sometimes with aldehydes), then clean flowers in the heart note (preferably rose, lily of the valley or violet) and a base with a good proportion of white musk. Therefore the three fragrances are similar in their overall impression. I like all three of them in their own way, whereby the order B - LB - CB is also the direction from "soft, rosy and warm" to "cool, fresh and firm". Byredo's "Blanche" is already a rather heavy floral and musky softwummer, which is not easy to wear for men. "Chemise Blanche" by LM is a perfectly ironed, maybe starched, white shirt and therefore completely unisex. I finally bought it after two years of sneaking around with drums.
Here now I had expected a fragrance that is even cooler and firmer than the Mazzone, because of the name "white linen": linen is rather hard and firm and has a cooling effect in summer. But I got (as a sample) a fragrance that is even (much) more feminine than Byredo, which is why, despite its iconic beauty, the name only gets 6 points for misleading consumers. Deceptive packaging, so to speak. But that doesn't detract from the beauty of the fragrance (for those who like that, which will mostly be ladies), because it is very beautiful. No question. And it is also declared as a women's fragrance, so I can't really complain about that
The fresh, cool, sparkling top note is completely skipped here. There is no citric or peppery note, it begins immediately with the rose. I tested the fragrance without looking at the pyramid and my first impression was: Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose. And lily of the valley. A bold, strong, sweet, dewy rose. And lily of the valley. Not sticky-sweet, the rose, no, already somehow upbeat and strong, but still very surprisingly dense-floral-rose right at the beginning. Jasmine I do not feel. Did I mention that lilies of the valley also play a part?
When this first floral firework has subsided a bit, I notice incredibly strong soapy notes, wherever they come from. I like soapy scents a lot, and I like that here too, but it's very feminine again. I say, a mixture of the good old curd soap (which reminds me of my grandma, which is meant positively) and a round women's perfume soap wrapped in a very playful tissue paper with floral ornaments (which actually reminds me of my grandma as well).
As it progresses, it swings back and forth between really heavy seas of flowers and a soft, creamy creaminess, into which traces of slightly dirty (not so white as a flower, see Pluto's commentary, which is just as great as Rosaviola's) animal notes are mixed. And it waves and waves and waves and waves. For the durability is, with at least considerable sillage, monstrous for a clean fragrance, if it is one at all. I put two sprayers on the forearm and after nine hours and one wash it was still waving. So here the claim "eau de parfum" is to be taken seriously, if not understated. Dose sparingly!
The name of the perfumer aroused my interest. Sophia Grojsman. Grojsman (or Hroismann etc.) is a typical name for Eastern European Jews; most of the bearers of this name were murdered in the Holocaust. The Ukrainian Prime Minister of the years 2016 to 2019, also of Jewish origin, was also called Grojsman. According to my research, Sophia Grosjman was born in March 1945 (!) in the "Bloodlands" (Timothy Snyder) of Eastern Europe, in the now Belarusian Lubcha of all places, which was the scene of the worst crimes against humanity during the war. She came with her family to Poland, where she studied chemistry and from where she later emigrated to the USA. There she became a star of the perfume scene, with countless awards, high professional positions in large fragrance companies and honorary posts to this day. From the list of her fragrances, however, there are only a few that tell me anything, including the famous "Eternity" by Calvin Klein. She is said to have always had a special love for rose scents and to have mastered their use in perfumes (I can confirm this with "White Linen"); and this love for roses is said to go back to her earliest childhood. What kind of childhood it was, and what memories of her parents little Sophia had to witness and relive, can only be guessed at in the dark. And it reminds us that human malice is far more murderous than the most dangerous virus.
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