Elbchen

Honestly, I couldn't find anything suitable.
Sure, I could have written, purple the last attempt.
In the past, well, a long time ago, when rubber boots were still made of wood, older ladies dressed in purple robes to signal their... let's say, sexual readiness that not everything was over yet.
Purple protects against pregnancy. Please don't take that seriously - it could backfire!
Purple or violet was once the color of luxury, worn by those who could afford it, expensive after all, and purple is still considered a color of mourning or silence today.
Purple has a calming, noble, and strengthening effect.

Now let's talk about Amethyst.
I walked past it for years, I knew nothing of its existence, and by chance while clicking around here I found the fragrance. Fruity floral sounded good, the rest too, and a sample arrived quickly.
And I spray it on, and the first contact is wonderful. Berries. Summer berries.
A plate full of juicy berries. Like sorbet fruits, not overly sweet, but aromatic. Memories of grandma's garden come to life, when we kids were supposed to collect raspberries, blackberries, and currants in small buckets and went back into the house scratched and with more in our mouths than in the bucket.
I had expected a full blast, wanted that too, thought I would get it, but these little berries were reserved, attractive, and light.
The disappointment of not sitting in a sweet berry trough made me sulk a bit; I had expected it differently. I actually prefer it when the top note is a bit more striking.
A floral gentle undertone mixes with the berry aroma, emphasizing the nobility that I am currently wearing on my skin.
It is calmingly beautiful, attractive, somewhat clean, minimally soapy, and simply lovely.
I don't smell vanilla directly, but I do smell a clean musk. But the nice kind, not stuffy but airy and flowing.
When my husband came home and we hugged, he whispered in my ear:
Oh, this is really nice. You smell attractive, warm, clean, and good.
"Good" is already a high accolade for my husband; good means you can wear it, you can buy it, you can spray it, and I can sit next to you without looking at you reproachfully.
I bought the large bottle at a true bargain price; it smells more expensive than it is currently offered for.
By the way, on my daughter's skin, who finds it "nice," we both smell the fruits stronger, more vibrant, and deeper. My skin is just different again, I know that already.
That the fruits are as they are, without kitschy berry sweetness, I now appreciate highly. Otherwise, it wouldn't be what makes it special.

Amethyst is one of my strong scents; no one in the office will be overwhelmed by an overdose, it's always wearable and envelops me, wafting around me for a good 5 hours, and I like to go to bed with it. Just a soul cuddler, one for days when you want to shut the world out, when you want and need to be by yourself.
I spray it quite generously; I find everything between 5-7 sprays to be perfect, more feels piercing. 5-7 sprays are my feel-good dose.

Okay, I have one more:
the most beautiful breaks are purple -
yes, life breaks, fading out, peace. Me.

On Friday, our Radcliff finally arrived from the winter sale in the UK, and at an amazing price. And there were samples included; I really wanted to test Halfeti Leather.
I love the original Halfeti very much; I don't wear it often, as it's not an everyday scent that works all the time - I find it quite special.

So, Halfeti Leather.
Let's transport ourselves to the years between 1920 and 1930. A major international car race is about to take place. Back then, drivers wore a kind of leather cap instead of helmets, mostly leather jackets, rugged trousers, and of course, they also wore shoes. All drivers had to line up at a starting line; there was no ranking like today, and the drivers ran to their cars. Whoever got in and started first was already in a good position for a profitable race.
Of course, Penhaligon's Halfeti Leather was at the start; the leather seats were specially treated to ensure a good fit, the wooden fittings were embedded and polished to a high shine. Halfeti Leather took to the starting line, and while the announcer was still shouting emotionally into the microphone about who was already completing the first lap, Halfeti Leather had already secured a good position. The fresh citrus note in the race car creates a good opening; the plum gets a bit overshadowed, but the top note can't hold on for long because the opulent spicy heart note quickly claims the space.
Penhaligon's Leather is racing the race of its life, overtaking Eau de Krawall, leaving Eau de Platzhirsch behind, and driving lap after lap. Oud comes into play along with the woods; the other drivers have to make a pit stop to refuel or change tires, but undeterred, H.L. (shortened because announcers never have that much time) keeps making his laps. There are already whispers that he must have a different fuel in his tank because he fearlessly speeds through curves right to the top. And there he stays; the announcer's voice nearly breaks as he declares H.L. the winner. The other drivers leave the track, the audience is filled with euphoria for having witnessed such an experience, the stands are being dismantled, more and more people leave the grounds while H.L. is still racing, and he is racing the race of his life. For 18 hours. Well, then the pace slowed down; the driver was no longer going at full speed since he was alone on the track. After 20 hours, the race was forcibly ended, the car, pushed to its limits, slowly rolled into the shower with quiet puttering sounds where it was brought to a halt - not to my dismay, I must sadly say.

The scent hasn't completely captivated me. It feels too tight on my skin, but compared to the regular Halfeti, which is quite unisex, I wouldn't wear Halfeti as a woman. Halfeti Leather lacks that special quality that blooms so enchantingly on the skin with the regular Halfeti. Of course: one might not want a rose, but the DNA of Halfeti is certainly well served with H.L., even though the leather note only subtly runs through the scent, sometimes even being overshadowed by the opulence and density.
I find it quite difficult to filter out scent notes in Halfeti; with H.L., I had an extremely hard time; everything feels quite well placed - but it doesn't undergo significant scent development. At least not on my skin. There is spice, wood, and oud, of course with fine nuances, but it sticks to its own thing. Not my Halfeti. The sillage is initially really unpredictably strong. I had a spritz on my neck, one on my wrists, and the scent has an abnormal longevity. When I had to attend to a human need at night, Halfeti was still quite perceptible, and that was after 12 hours. And it even seemed (so my imagination) to be waiting for me in the bedroom! The longevity had a bit of a nerve potential, which surely also stemmed from the fact that I couldn't experience much scent development. Everything is somehow immediately present, complex, dense, and very powerful.
In my opinion, a very masculine scent.
Not my scent, very well made, outstanding quality, but I will stick with the regular Halfeti.

My grandpa was a pipe smoker. As a child, I found it fascinating how he cleaned his pipe, packed it, lit it, and how he could shape smoke into rings.
My grandpa was a difficult person - others say so. For me, he was my grandpa, whom I teased, who stood there with his mouth agape at my sometimes rebellious remarks, and whom I loved.
Simply and plainly loved, just as it should be.
He was a grumbling pipe-smoking grandpa - with the best tobacco in the world.
There was not just smoke; there was always a juicy fruity note involved, dense aromas that came from the pipe. His pipe had a wonderful light orange tone in the smooth bowl, it looked beautiful.

When we were in London at Penhaligon's, I was love-struck, enchanted by Clara and Halfeti as I wandered through the store, my dear husband was testing Radcliff. Even before he came towards me with his arm outstretched, my grandpa was grinning in the store, pipe in mouth, looking down at me.
Of course, not in person; otherwise, I wouldn't have stood there so calmly! No, Radcliff conjured up the image of my grandpa, and my nose was practically glued to the spot where the spray hit my husband's skin.
Just as I knew I needed Clara, I also knew that Radcliff had to come home to my husband; he just didn't know it yet.
No, he didn't want to take it with him; it would be far too expensive, and we left the store.
We both haven't forgotten Radcliff.
At ALZD, since I had to order something anyway, I added a small sample for him. He was as happy as a child in December getting new moon boots, unable to wait for the snow to finally come. My nearly 1.90 m tall husband hugged me tightly (I'm a little stump at 1.64) and held me close - over a sample. A sample!!!
He cherished the sprayer. I wouldn't have been surprised if one morning I had walked into the bathroom and Mini-Radcliff had been given a throne on the packaging of cotton swabs or something, illuminated by LED spotlights in our bathroom cabinet!
My husband loves his fragrances very much - but he is too... uh... frugal to buy such an expensive scent.
But I, I was on the hunt, keeping my eyes open, peeking here and there, picking up trails, making notes of where it had been seen, and mentally polishing the gun, or actually the account, to be prepared... good preparation is everything anyway.
And so it happened that when he was breathing a bit louder in bed next to me, I couldn't sleep.
Since I still had something to do in the bay, I made myself a tea, sat down in the kitchen with my laptop, and while the residents were blissfully slumbering, I surfed through the bay.
When I typed Radcliff into the search bar, more of a reflex than a well-thought-out thought, a bid was displayed. Just freshly listed, only a few hours ago.
Gun loaded and secured! And with my mouth agape, I read the offer. Adrenaline was pumping through my body! This seller had received Radcliff as a gift, had sprayed it once, and simply didn't like it. He had arranged with the giver to sell the fragrance, and from the proceeds, the children were to receive a little extra Christmas gift; it was early December.
For not even half the MSRP, there was Radcliff, and I nearly dropped all my cartridges from the belt or my eyes from my head!
The sales text was so nicely written; there was the receipt as proof of origin, from first-class storage, condition very good, and I, I got ready for the hunt. I put on my cozy socks, made myself comfortable, took an upright position in the chair, and took the final shot - in the middle of the night, alone in the kitchen. But I handle the hunting alone, in peace.

Roaring Radcliff is not a complex, extraordinary fragrance; that may be true.
But this fine aromatic tobacco note, combined with the alcohol scent, gingerbread, and fruits (yes, they are in there) makes the fragrance on my husband's skin a loving experience.
No one else could smell so wonderfully warm and familiar with Radcliff; I’m boldly stating this from my perch, cozy socks on my feet and the gun at the ready!
Radcliff now stands next to Clara; they look good together, the two.

PS: No animals were harmed in the making of this comment, big game hunter's honor!!

Many of you will surely know Bob Ross. He was that charming American with the wonderful hair, he painted wet-on-wet, and his pictures and his technique are simply beautiful to me.
Bob always said that you can't do anything wrong when painting, everyone would do it differently, and everything would thus be right. I even tried it once, but my kind of art reflects a different understanding and had a slightly surreal touch of a forest fire after a comet impact with a mud fight of the sea creatures!
I always loved watching him when the reruns were on TV, as he painted an inviting beach, an island, a clearing in the woods... and everything looked so magically simple.
And with so many pictures, I always thought: Nooo Bob, don’t do it, because I knew exactly what would happen:
in a picture that was perfect for me, he would then paint happy little friends, there were trees, bushes, whatever.
And I always thought, put the brush down Bob, don’t do it, nooo there doesn’t need to be a happy little bush, it will be overloaded, just leave it as it is.... But Bob never listened to me (of course, they were recordings...)
What does this have to do with the scent of Juliette Has A Gun, the Liquid Illusion?

Let me tell you!
So now I come to the scent! I was lucky to be part of the sharing that the wonderful BlueValkyrie organized. Thank you once again! I was so excited about the scent! And I was (almost) not disappointed!
It is a sweet, fluffy almond dream, yes indeed.
Gentle, caressing, alluring, and yes, a bit erotic. A wonderfully powdery, not at all dry iris comes along and rounds out the scent, simply beautiful on the skin, and a pleasant sigh escapes my mouth. You lean back in your chair and just enjoy. As if Bob were painting a picture. Such a painting always takes a little time; you don’t just throw it onto the white canvas.
Now let’s say the scent lasts 6-8 hours on the skin (and it does). About halfway through, however, there is something that bothers me a bit. Is it the tuberose? The interplay of the individual fragrance notes on my skin? I don’t know... you slide around in the chair and think: nooo, stay like this, there’s nothing to change! Bob paints an iris and something appears in the scent that bothers me. Whether Bob paints happy little tuberoses... tuberoses... whatever, you slide to the edge of the chair, furrow your brow, and think: it started so wonderfully, it was clear it wouldn’t stay like this!
PUT THE BRUSH DOWN BOB!!!
There’s something ticking in the scent that I don’t like at halftime; I can’t say it any other way.
However, Bob keeps painting undeterred, and the scent then becomes cuddly warm in the base, and the iris is still there. When you look at the picture, you want to scratch off the little bush/shrub/whatever next to the iris and the almond with your fingernail, but that’s not possible.
You slide back in the chair and view the overall (art)work from a distance (I even put on my glasses for that). But take your time with it, observe it from different perspectives, see light and shadow, consider individual components that are sometimes not so perceptible, and linger for a while to then absorb the scent within you.

Liquid sensory illusion. Maybe something is deceiving me about the scent, bringing forth something I hadn’t thought of, whatever. A truly wonderful almond-iris scent with hints of warm tonka bean, it warms the heart wonderfully on colder days, and it should be tried in the summer.
It is and remains very close to the skin, the sillage is rather subtle, and the longevity could be a bit better, although there have been others that quickly sought the exit on my skin. Bob paints, so to speak, with half strength, uses less color, lightens everything up a bit,... so to speak. He washed the brush too early...
A truly beautiful scent, I like to wear it. However, for the price, the sillage and longevity are too low for me.

Anticipation is indeed the greatest joy!
For weeks, I have been looking forward to my vacation, finally spending some lovely days with my beloved!
We wanted to get away for a couple of days without stress, doing this and that, no rush, no obligations, just having a good time. So we took a little trip and were out and about a lot, enjoying nice dinners in the evenings... wonderful! From dear Mantus, I received a small package with many samples, which I was particularly excited about, as I had already discovered a few scents that made my heart race!
The next day, I had strange pains in my leg and back, nothing too wild, let’s go swimming, let’s enjoy the day.
Then at night, peace and calm were over. An incredible pain kept me from sleeping; I couldn’t lie down, couldn’t sit, and wandered in lonely circles through the living room in the early morning hours (I looked like Quasimodo!). I expected to have carved a deep groove in the floor, but no, the floor is still fine, I don’t have to renovate afterwards :-)
I could barely get out of bed; actually, I rolled out like a toddler to then sit up. I didn’t want to wake anyone, so I rummaged through the package to distract myself. My gaze fell on Messy Sexy Just Rolled Out Of Bed. The irony hit me instantly; in pain, I had dragged myself out of bed, and there was nothing sexy about it, I was disheveled and wrinkled, yes indeed.
And with the first spray, as I hobbled through the living room, my hand tightly holding the sample, a wonderful scent of fresh, juicy peaches wafted up from my wrist, such a fine, gentle, lovely fragrance. Sweet, yes, but not heavy, rather vanilla-like with fruit.
A subtle hint of rose comes later, and although many scents leave my skin quickly - this one stays. For hours, this wonderful peach lingers around my nose, again and again a little cloud of joy rises, like fresh peach slices on a fruit sorbet that simply smells divine.
After hours, the scent becomes a bit less fruity, but a lovely base emerges.
So warm, so attractive, delicious, so flattering and ... sexy? Well, why not?
Messy Sexy Just Rolled Out Of Bed was with me in the doctor's waiting room, at the pharmacy, on the sofa when I tried to put on my favorite cozy pants (one develops unexpected skills balancing on one leg to put pants on or take them off..), the scent lasts exceptionally long in my opinion, and the sample was empty faster than I would have liked.
Of course, it immediately went on my wish list, and as fate would have it, a bottle was waiting for me in the souk after a few days - a sign! The disheveled bed-rolling scent is meant for me; I have recognized the signs!

The sacroiliac joint was the culprit, and due to the misalignment, a nerve inflammation developed - one can spend a vacation differently, just so you know. I’m now walking with a crutch to alleviate the misalignment because I’m supposed to rest but also walk; I chose my crutches in blue (any other color would have been completely out of the question) and am therefore more at home than out and about.
But: I have a new fragrance love, and maybe my vacation illness scent will arrive today! I would be delighted. Then I will spray myself and walk to the café on the main street, sit down in the café, enjoy the sun - and smell incredibly wonderful and delicious!