Three Blind Buys

To the tune of Three Blind Mice, let all who plead guilty sing it:

Three blind buys
Three blind buys
See what you've done
See what you've done
You dug around in the bargain box
Picked up some boxes that matched your frocks
The smell of the fragrances gave you shocks
Three blind buys.

Casmir eau de parfum by Chopard I had a cute little sample bottle of Casmir edp when it first arrived to market. I loved it so greadily went ahead and bought a bottle of the parfum. Almost identical to the edp but with little projection or trail I found it rather disappointing, lifeless. Casmir disappeared from the market but roll on and it is back so a blind buy of 100 ml hit my doormat.

The first few days of wearing Casmir I could only smell an overwhelming dolls head plastic vanilla. As my brain got used to all those vanilla like notes my impression of the perfume changed totally. With vanilla now in the background some peach, fizzy sherberty jasmine, geranium blackcurrent, some soft woods, a hint of green round the perfume out to what I remember and loved from all those years ago. Back it goes on my favourite list and a back up bottle is sure to head my way.

Quite the turn around of my perception which I put down to not being familiar with vanilla and so over smelling those notes. I think it explains quite a few of my purchases where I loved it whilst working my way through one or two ml of sample only to be disappointed with the full bottle.

My sampling has been underwhelming of late warrenting just a few words in the statement section rather than full reviews. One underwhelming experience was Salome by Papillon and led to my second blind buy - Birch Tar oil. Papillon smell and feel like they have a high percentage of essential oils in the mix so my guess for the smokey undercurrent in Salome is Birch Tar. I had read descriptions of Birch Tar, thought it sounded similar to the rich dry smell of an old well used pipe I get in Salome, so bought some for test.

Birch Tar is powerful stuff. The smell is sweet and smokey reminding me of smoked almonds and rather less pleasantly of smoked bacon and smoked haddock. There is something sweet and meaty about it. Several washes later along with a change of clothes and I'm still pouring smokey bacon crisps. Yes, it does smell like bonfires, leather, and all the rest that people say but to me it also has this meaty sweetness to it. I'm pretty sure that I smell Birch Tar in Salome and along with carnation is pretty much all I get.

Goodness knows if I'll find a use for the Birch Tar oil; it is so powerful that just a dab seemed to be absorbed through my skin and left me tasting it the next day. The room smelt like smokey bacon crisps for about a week. I did a tiny dab just now to see if I still get the meaty aspect and confirm that I do along with a tar like note which is nice.

Enticed as I was by many online recommendations that it was a dupe for Angel and unable to experience the full unfolding of Angel as it gives me a stonking great migraine, I bought (ta da daaa!) Wish by Chopard.

Wish comes in a pretty and heavy glass bottle in the shape of a cut diamond. The lid is silver and the liquid pale, slightly green tinged blue. Quite a nice presentation in its dark navy box.

Smell wise Wish wasn't in the least what I expected it would be; It smelt so artificial th

at I couldn't get my head around its generic fruityness, raw incense, and all sorts of vanillic like sweet. I have tried it five or six times and am only just starting to smell past the toffee/vanilla achord to some light fruity notes that remind me of fresh pear and apricot cream.

So what have I learnt? I have learnt that unfamiliar notes totally throw off the balance of the perfume to my nose as they take front and centre, drowning out all else.

What else have I learnt? Well, I have learnt that I find Birch Tar far too much and at the moment am heartily wishing that I hadn't given myself a teany tiny dab as it really is quite suffocating. Mr. Duck agrees.