more evocative. (photo via http://blog.missala.pl) Even the Prive Collection by Armani, consisting of such masterpieces of power and quality as Myrrhe Imperiale and Rose d’Arabie fails on the packaging front because even though the bottle is a heavy opaque black glass, the gold rock top is plastic! (photo via blog.malva-parfume) And even one of my favorites, Aerin Lauder, made the beauty of her precious perfumes...

believe that almost no one dislikes this perfume. Even though I dislike the name (and the message behind it: a woman-child at play), the scent itself is one of those perfumes that lead a life of their own. It is not that GC smells like nothing else, nor is it terribly complex in the way of the old days. The truth is that it is so easy to wear, so well-blended and creates such an amazing feeling in the wearer that...

a dupe. I read that the sillage and lasting power were much better in the Marly line than the Hermessence line. But the price! It was more expensive than Ambre Narguile and though the bottle looked nice, my previous sampling of the house left me unimpressed. Oajan reminds me of a really good honey cake full of delicious cinnamon. (photo via petitchef) I feel a very slight sourness in the composition but it is nothing...

with its incredibly demanding character. I can just picture Chanel herself loving this scent though she died so long before it was created. (photo via melroseantiques) Again, I do not share Chanel’s love of Asian lacquer screens but there is a lot of charm in them in an old-world kind of sense and the perfume attempts to create the same artistic mood as those screens give their admirers. The scent...

and found Aegyptus by Tesori. It smelled so divine that I wished to buy some here in the States but the perfumes are not available. The bath products are, and I have been enjoying the deep lather and oudy smell of Royal Oud dello Yemen. It actually smells like oud and the bottle has raised gold curlicues which look sumptuous hanging in your bathroom by the little chain the shower gel comes with. (photo via aufeminin.com......

it. I don't find it to be anything near groundbreaking or unexpendable. OK, it has not been artificially made thus far. So what? Many otherwise expensive brands use synthetic oud smell-alikes. But these are allegedly also very expensive to produce, and what's more, experts say that they can't hold a candle to real natural oud. I'm not an expert, thus I can't verify any of these claims. And I don't find...

the key for any perfume house to be characterised as "niche" is the width of its products distribution. In other words, the smaller the number of stores in which it can be found, the bigger the reading on the "nicheometer". But this alone is not a safe method, since Tesori d'Oriente perfumes are sold even in super-markets, but according to a certain and very popular site, Tesori d'Oriente is a niche...

Warm for Winter Discovery Set Put away your hot weather citrus and floral scents. Bring out your heavy scents with oud, amber, woods, resins and floral orientals for those crisp days and nights. After the Winter Solstice we have short days and cold nights…revel in the woods and deep parfums. Try these winter eau de parfums of Camille, Colette, Italian Smoke, Vert, Intimacy, Timeless,...

we trained to like perfumes? I mean like Pavlov's dogs? Are we susceptible to anyone telling us stuff like "This is what you should like now. Everything else is either dated, old-lady, or hackneyed." or "If you wear this, girls will be at your feet, if you wear that, boys will love you. But only this and that, not these and those. These and those belong to the past and they'd better stay there."...

plenty of green tea perfumes (I am not a fan of the smell nor the drink) and a quantity of spiced, aromatic and candied tea scents (think Five O'Clock au Gingembre). But what of strong black tea, the way it is drunk in Russia and Iran? Sure, we add sugar to it, but it is the powerful aroma of a good unadulterated tea I was looking for. A perfume reminiscent of Czar Nicholas II Royal...

eaten decadent Iranian puddings or even Indian chicken dishes, the smell of saffron is very subtle. It is unlike anything else: a bit sweet, musky and comforting. When choosing a saffron scent, one would have to pay attention to the most nuanced of smells. I have been on the lookout for a good saffron perfume for years, but have not found the "perfect" one. Seeing the beautiful calligraphy on the triple...

(photo via swordscollection.blogspot.com) For those that don't know, Yatagan is a type of Turkish sword as well as an excellent perfume. I would call it a unisex scent though it is obviously, and for good reason, targeted towards men. In the world of boring perfume releases, celebrity scents and vintage disappointments, there is nothing better than finding a "difficult" perfume in a sea of blandness....