I know technically, it is not summer yet but it certainly feels that way here. The mornings are cool and pleasant while the mid-day temperatures creep towards 90. Yet the breeze still maintains its freshness, which allows for weather enjoyment rather than dread. Despite the fact that I am not a warm-weather perfume lover, preferring to stick to summer ouds, I ventured into cheap-but-good...

Venice is a city of ancient beauty but unless you have visited it during the summer, you will never know its smell. The wet rot of the canals mixes with the pungent exhaust of the vaporetto fumes to create a suffocating mixture of fetid, hot air. This air permeates every moment of the day and as the heat increases, so does the will to survive. Nothing pleasant can be said of Venice's air quality but thankfully,...

Besides the rose, no flower captured my imagination in perfume searches. I long for the rose. Not a simple soliflore but a potent rose with spice, oud, pepper, something! I came across an almost full bottle of Aerin Evening Rose on ebay for about 60% off. Normally, I would only spend more than a hundred bucks on something I was very familiar with that had great lasting power. Evening Rose was unsniffed and having...

Blind buys--the excitement, the anticipation, the risk of spending a lot of money on something you might hate. Perfume is such a subjective thing. Even when we read reviews and study the notes, there is nothing that compares to actually smelling a perfume. That is why blind buys are risky yet thrilling opportunities to test your own skill in selecting un-sniffed fragrances as well as a chance...

Cool night air sweeps tea plantations by the Caspian Sea. Green tea leaves slowly melt into darkness. Labdanum and cedarwood caress the palate. Incense blows about on the wind as the night descends into the blueness of dawn. I'd like to spend a night on the rooftop of an Iranian house while smelling black tea, one of my favorite things on earth, and feeling the fresh night breeze leaving a trail...

Let's do some reviews. Perfumer Shelley Waddington has a line called "En Voyage" perfumes, so let us take a voyage through her art. There is nothing more pleasurable than a fragrant trip. Zelda is a gasp-worthy scent. When I first smelled it, the boozy spicy magnolia made me clutch the sample to my chest and close my eyes with a sigh. I never want to let go. And I don't even like white flowers! The...

Good God, it’s Spring already and still I am clinging to spicy scents. There is Arabie, a lover that I have been waiting for for many years. Its initial cumin was sharp and offensive. This was my first venture into Lutens, you see, and to start with Arabie was a mistake. But I have been dreaming about it and finally decided to own it. Now that I am older, the spice/sugar/fruit of its Arabian market is just right....

Well, there is just no way to get warm. Winter is hitting hard and here in Texas, we are vacillating from a summery day of 83 degrees to a 23 degree day 24 hours later. A pleasant surprise in the form of perfume swaps keeps my spirits high. You see, I am a niche kind of perfume lover, and rarely venture out of that new-found comfort zone. Browsing through the swap lists on Fragrantica recently, I noticed...

Oh King of Ambers, blow down your smoky grace upon my uninspired days. The earthy muck and herbal stew of you Anoints me. No other amber can come close and when The sultry burn of your sugared sap is on me I am undone and withered in your haze. Anoint me, anoint me once again.

And so a rose has bloomed through parched ground, blood-soaked and caked with despair. The frosty winds lick its edges, but it survives. Who knows how long, but it is real for now. A perfume genius with such life-altering creations as Incense Rose (earthy and sweet) and Lonestar Memories (Texas patched-up leather), Andy Tauer has shocked the noses that seek out niche perfumes with a spicy gourmand composition...

A powerful jewel in a landscape of nothing. An empire of might, dissolved. The sands blow about, hastening the hour...Akkad. Perfumed rooms and gathering shadows. Wiped away with a howling wind. The promise land, a place of beginnings, to be seen nevermore. Lubin's Akkad is a soft and fiery composition that dries down into a hard amber. As time goes on, the hardness evolves into a spreading...

As the Texas weather vacillates between almost-freezing temperatures and warm sunny days, the leaves yellow and fall. It is too early to put a log in the fireplace, but the Fall feeling tempts us to light a fire. The crackle of a wood fire and the smell of smoky sweetness can be captured with candles. One that I really like is the Wood Wick Trilogy Fireside, Redwood and Sandalwood/Clove candle. The top layer...