Turandot

I'm so glad that Royal Extract II is so expensive that I'm not even tempted to afford a bottle. And how glad I am that I got this bottling, because a very first test of a tiny sample had me hooked and proved to me that Tierry Water is quite capable of creating chpyred scents and handling galbanum. Was there going to be a turnaround in the fragrance trend? There was already hope that the dry spell for us galbanum and moss lovers might soon come to an end.

Yes, when I spray on the fragrance I am thrilled, it evokes memories of classics like Cabochard, N°19 or Scherrer. I subscribe to every word of Mörderbiene's comment. such a fragrance is what the world of chypre lovers has been waiting for. I'm also not looking for the hair in the soup per se, just because I couldn't afford the scent. I'm glad that Guerlain has finally accepted that there are still fragrance lovers beyond fans of Mon Guerlain or Petit Robe noir. How nice - but at the same time how sad, because already after a relatively short time the magic has evaporated as if by magic.

I'm not usually keen on fragrances that have a longevity like glue. It also does not bother me if I have to spray again and again during the day, on the contrary. Sometimes I like to switch quite a bit, too. But if I smell of an eagerly awaited Guerlainduft after 2 hours hardly what, then makes disappointment, in this case, but also relief spreads that this royal extract then but not landed on the wish list.

Mr. Water I would like to shout: Yes, the direction is right, please more of it and especially longer!

Just as little as the Brecht song - preferably sung by the aging great Milva - evokes South Seas feeling, so little does the fragrance remind me of the islands in the wind. Powerful, almost coarse and a little bit vulgar, that is the fragrance from the workshop Lehmanns, and even if with exotic fragrance notes were not spared - it remains for me a strange aftertaste, seems almost like caricature of the South Seas and if it is meant so, it is great again.

To shimmy along a pyramid with the perfumes of Harry Lehmann is idle. And if I am to name a "something like...", then Femme by Rochas comes to mind rather than Sous le Vent, but Surabaya wants to be neither, but is probably a tribute to seafaring long before the time of container ships and cruising for everyone. But maybe that's not true either, and Surabaya was chosen as the name for the fragrance simply because of its romantic sound.

One can be divided about the appearance of Lehmann's fragrances. I belong to the fragrance lovers who thoroughly enjoy treating themselves to a bit of luxury with a perfume and therefore miss the beauty of flacons from the workshop of a Serge Mansau, for example. That's why I think it's positive that everyone can afford a Lehmann fragrance, but just as I'm ambivalent about Bert Brecht, I miss a bit of Kuhdamm or, even better, Maximilianstr. in Munich when it comes to perfumes from Kantstr. Since also a touch of decadence does not really bother me.

The fragrance now to evaluate, that's hard for me and I let it stay. The filling I will keep, because it tells me just a story, and every now and then I will continue to spin with a drop of Surabaya. As a perfume for me, the fragrance doesn't fit. But as an example of Harry Lehmann's creativity, it's great.

I experience tuberoses either like the trumpets of Jericho, which blow away all other scents, room-filling and often even oppressive, or, if the flower is used discreetly as a quiet and often like a little melancholic smile, excellently translated into olfactory beauty. It is amazing how the character of a fragrance changes when you play with the dosage.

Here I experience the dimmed version and I almost see myself in a scenery to which L`Heure bleue could also fit. Diffuse twilight that makes outlines melt away, sounds, preferably in a minor key, that blow away in a light breeze, colours that change from deep dark petrol to emerald to delicate mint. This is wonderful and radiates a healing calm. I can't imagine this fragrance in the morning on the way to work or for a boisterous party. Floral Veil creates a dreamlike atmosphere for the end of a day, satisfied if it was a good day but at the same time conciliatory, should it not be.

In order not to let green notes become banal and to use white flowers in a way that they don't look sultry or even pompous, but elegant and with refined restraint, this is for me an example of real perfumer's art and I'm sorry that only the fragrance company Robertet is mentioned as perfumer and that the unknown magician who created the perfume remains a secret. The fragrance also ends up appropriately soft, and I find it particularly pleasant that the base doesn't try to open a new chapter and change the character of the fragrance again, as is so often the case. I like fragrances that stay with the theme and that is pleasantly the case with Floral Veil.

When I see Grossmith's fragrances, I think twice about buying them. I'd have to save up for them, and I don't think it's just me. They don't follow any of the current trends either, and I can imagine that some fragrance lovers might even find them a little superficially too uninteresting to dig so deep into their piggy bank. This is also reflected here, because not only is the habe-I- and wishlist remarkably short, but the manageable watch list also speaks a clear language. I think that's a pity and I think, for lovers of both sexes, who like to appreciate more serious floral perfumes, a test should be worthwhile.

Anyway, I will celebrate my bottling with pleasure and who knows...

There will be something missing in Germany's pedestrian zones when not only Galeria Kaufhof but also various Karstadt stores will soon be a thing of the past. I don't want to go into the situation of the employees - we can all imagine how they feel. I take hold of my own nose and realize that I have only very rarely walked through the double doors and the air curtain of the temples of consumption of former times. It was simply a matter of course to wait there for the rain shower to subside, to meet friends at a certain place so as not to stand in the cold in winter or to have a new battery tinkered into the watch in a hurry. But specifically, for example to buy clothes, then rather not. So I was rather drawn to a specialist shop where I knew that both my size and my style was listed or yes, ashes on my head, I did not want to stand helplessly in front of the mirror in poorly lit changing rooms because none of the 3 parts that I was allowed to take with me fit and I ordered again on the Internet.

But there was something that magically attracted me, at least while I was in it. And that was the perfume department. No, not because of Lancome, Jil Sander or Joop, but because of a rather hidden shelf, which actually consisted only of a bending zone, to bashfully offer some of the treasures nostalgic to my nose, which had a great past and today - often from the Far East - are only offered in special sizes for under 20 Euros. Cabochard, Je Reviens, now and then MCM or Blue Grass from Arden and Femme from Tristano Onofri.

I can still remember very well that even on the most demanding front in the perfumery department I offered the predecessor in its typical flacon to many a sympathetic customer. It was often ladies of my age who confidingly told me that they couldn't afford a channeled fragrance, but didn't want to smell like everyone else. They usually didn't know the term chypre, but I knew what I could score with, introduced them to one of my secret weapons and went for Tristano Onofri. That was the name of the fragrance back then. The current version unfortunately only got the common name "Femme" and hides the brand in a shameful way. For me a wrong decision, but at least the scent has not been changed

Femme starts brightly, but not with the typical flowery fresh top notes, which often make us wink at the inside. No, here it becomes delicately spicy at the beginning and leads us to a magical and unmistakable heart note. If friendliness smells, then certainly so. Basically, we don't encounter any exotics here, nothing that has been explicitly imported from the far corners of the world, quite common scents actually, which probably smell much more valuable when refined with labdanum, which then demand the appearance and the price tag. But that's not all, because as much care was put into the end and so we say goodbye after many hours - because the durability is astonishing - a beautiful base, which wouldn't need to hide even in much more expensive fragrances and behind luxurious names.
The fragrance has always been part of my collection and I have often and gladly sprayed a bit of magical atmosphere with it in my normal everyday life with a smile. It does not always have to be Guerlain.

In our city, Kaufhof is a thing of the past, but Karstadt may (still?) stay, and I have firmly resolved to stroll through it again in peace and quiet, and not just to visit the familiar and somewhat bashful corner with the special sizes of the fragrances. After all, it's up to us whether our inner cities will become even more boring in the future than they already are

When Coco Chanel travelled from Paris to Venice, she was certainly very agitated, because that was shortly after the accidental death of Arthur Capel. They say he was the only man she ever really loved.
Her friend Misia therefore brought her to Venice to distract her, which obviously succeeded. Here she met, among others, the theatre and ballet impresario Diaghilev, and her circle of friends expanded to include some illustrious names from the art and culture scene of the time.

Unlike this turbulent period in Coco Chanel's life, the Paris - Venise, the fragrance dedicated to this journey, is rather reserved, though elegant and noble according to typical Chanel DNA. The reference to Venice or Italy is probably given by Neroli, which gives the perfume its basic mood. It's a bit far-fetched, though, because I almost want to suggest that the fragrance is shy, but with a little patience, a certain sophistication develops on my skin. I can imagine that the clean creaminess of the perfume suggests closeness, but for me it is not expressive enough, too bright, I would almost say too feminine, for me to feel comfortable with it.

I'm sure that Coco herself would have preferred louder or rather more powerful perfumes. However, the Chanel house is definitely appealing to a group of buyers that has been neglected up to now. Who loves the quiet, harmonious perfumes, will certainly feel comfortable with Paris - Venise. If I were given the fragrance as a gift, I would wear it from time to time as a summer companion. But I'm afraid I would then simply forget him, because for me Paris-Venise has too little recognition value