What Patchouli Means to Me

My first brush with patchouli occurred sometime in the mid 80's, we were in Boston (Charles Street to be exact) crossing the street and there were some people standing on the island between the streets, they were in the middle of crossing also. They were kids, probably a few years older than us. My boyfriend at the time said, "Ugh, patchouli...." when we got near them, but not loud enough for them to hear. I said "What's patchouli?" which he answered with a Shushhhh, I didn't know who or what he was talking about. He said, "Those hippies over there, they reek of patchouli." And those kids looked kind of dirty, I recall they were all bundled up in stringy like clothes-it was winter and one was wearing a brown suede fringe jacket with an acoustic guitar strapped to his back- so they looked like stringy, frindgy clothes and hair. Not filthy dirty but hip dirty, they had a style, a coolness about them.

It smelled like fresh dirt which the wind wafted it in our direction, and it was strong. Like soil and oil, and planting things in terracotta pots outside in the summer. It did not smell like perfume to me, it was simply an aroma, not something you'd pay a lot of money for out of a store which came all packaged up in a fancy bottle with a sprayer. It was the anti-perfume, the anti-establishment perfume.

A few years later I bought a small, amber bottle of patchouli that smelled just like that dirt smell. Not Spiritual Sky, I had smelled their patchouli and it wasn't the same. This was some, possibly hand-mixed/handmade oil I got out of an occult shop that had shelves full of exotic oils. Along with the patchouli I got a bottle of Mango and a bottle of Sandalwood. The sweetness of the Mango attracted me.  I also acquired a bottle of coconut and some different Musks (Egyptian Musk, Dark Musk, the ones they sell on the sidewalks in NYC). So I had a nice little arsenal of fragrances going there with all those bottles. That kept me satisfied for a few years.

The patchouli laden perfumes of today don't have that soil like scent, well very few do, if even. I don't catch the soil/dirt accord except in one fragrance. It arises when one of my girlfriends wears Angel, and only on her do I smell it. On other people Angel smells sweeter, more cotton candy, more chocolate. On her the patchouli explodes. Must be a body chemistry thing.

I was reminded of the hippie patchouli incident a couple of days ago when I had the dogs out for a walk. One of the neighbors had recently raked up leaves (or neatened up their ground area, their house is on a hill so its not a lawn) and the rake had exposed all the semi-moist dirt, with little chunks of grass remaining. My dog thought that would be a great place to sniff around or go pee-pee so I had to pause there and the scent hit me. My mind wandered off and back to 30 years or so ago, remembering those frindged hippies and their patchouli. I don't even know if the dog did her business there or not, I was daydreaming of patchouli.

Imposter Perfumes

I get a kick out of the names of the Lady Gaga imposter perfumes, fakes, whatever you'd call them. "Crazy Lady" takes the cake for names. Can you imagine someone asking what you're wearing and having to give them that answer? If you're truthful.  Or "Monster Lady" which I saw the other day in C.W. Price. (I can't remember where I saw Crazy Lady, it was a while ago.) These imposter Lady Gagas seem to be everywhere fakes are sold,  it must be a popular perfume. The kiddies whose parents can't afford or refuse to buy the genuine Lady G must love it, since it gives them a chance to own something close to what they might not be able to afford otherwise.

Have you ever bought an imposter perfume? I have, waaay back in the day. I recall buying a bottle (or was it a can?) of one of those "If you love CK One, you'll love OK Numero Uno " or whatever it was called. My girlfriend at work wore it and I got turned onto it from her. I also liked the fact that it was unisex, it felt kind of edgy to wear a potentially man's fragrance. Plus it was "It's so clean smelling" we'd say. It was different at the time. Ugh. If we only know we'd all be bombarded by "Clean" over the next 20 years. "Clean" got tiring, boring. At the time I didn't want to pay $50 or more to smell clean.  I also didn't have a lot of disposable income.  I still don't have the disposable income but I find a way to work a Lutens or Guerlain into the budget from time to time.

If I really loved CK one I would have bought the real deal at full retail price. Back then I ponied up few times and paid for an expensive perfume. Guerlain's Mahora was one of them. I got a whiff from a magazine and there was nothing in the world like it, I HAD to have it. I also had to travel all over town to find it! Filene's and Jordan Marsh (or was it Macy's by then?) didn't carry it and they pointed me in the direction of either Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue, where I went and bought it, I think it was around $60-$80, somewhere in that ballpark. They were very generous with the samples when I bought it, I got a few carded samples of probably JPG, which I seemed to get every time I made a purchase, and they also gave me about 3 or 4 minis of Mahora. I had enough Mahora I gave a couple of the minis to my sister in law. (Yeah, I wish I didn't do that now....)

Actually, if you're itching for Lady Gaga perfume and are short on cash, some of the TJ Maxx around here have it @ about $15 for a 1.7 oz. Or you can get the Lady Gaga Singing Toothbrush which is in the "as seen on TV" aisle of Wallgreens.

Victoria's Secret No.1 Feathered Musk

Why this? Somehow or somewhere I read a review of this stuff which led me to seek it out. I think that's how it happened. Normally I don't chase after Musks (unless a lot of peeps describe them as "dirty" and "filthy" then I get curious) Chasing after a Victoria's Secret Perfume? Very rare. The last perfume I liked and owned from them was Halo. Released in 2000, Halo has: top notes of poinsettia, fig leaf, freesia and tiare flower; middle notes are orchid, pepper and vanilla; base note is sandalwood. Back then I fit into the wardrobe offerings of Victoria's Secret so I probably stumbled across Halo while buying some over priced panties.

This feathered Musk. What is a feathered musk? Musk from a bird? Please. And if anyone asks I'll say I'm wearing something else. No way in He// am I admitting to wearing something from VS. Anyhoo, this is a real surprise from VS. An actual perfume that's not all candy/vanilla/flowers/laundry scent. No. 1 develops on the skin and takes twists and turns along the way.

It starts off with something citrus, lime? Bergamot? No citrus is listed in the notes but I smell something zingy. Zingy with hints of coconut and chocolate. I'm not the only one smelling coconut, my husband smelled it, too.
The chocolate is a milk chocolate, not the deep dark chocolate found in Borneo or Coromandel. It isn't along the lines of Elmer's Chocolates (the cheapest, most inferior chocolates that show up on the shelves around Easter, ewww.) but more along the lines of Hersheys. Then it turns tobacco, cherry pipe tobacco, kind of like By Kilian's Back to Black, if I'm remembering the scent correctly. Very strong cherry tobacco. A couple of days ago I was wearing No.1, stepped out of the car and into the cold and I got a blast of cherry tobacco in the freezing cold.  Otherwise it stays close to the skin, it's light and unfortunately doesn't last long. I wind up reapplying this a couple of times a day, several sprays, too. I like to get whiffs from my perfume throughout the day, I don't from this, it's nose-to-skin after a couple of hours. If I could get the body cream that would create some silliage, I can't find it anywhere, it's no longer on the store shelves and not much is on the bay or amazon, mostly the perfumes & body spray are up for sale. Maybe when Vicky has the semi-annual sale, but by the time that rolls around I'll be onto the next big thing.

I've been wearing this for over a week straight. Unusual for me, and I didn't wear anything special on Sunday. Usually I'll wear something, uh, elegant and special and/or different on Sundays, like Joy, or I'll test drive something traditional, it depends on how I feel when I get up. Right now I feel like seeking out my Back to Black sample, I know I have several stashed here somewhere. It really helps when organizing perfumes if I put them in alphabetical order by house, not name. I was in the process of doing that but haven't finished.

Fumes and Fumes

Since I had my cardiac arrest I have not smoked a cigarette. September 10th to November 4th, equals almost 2 months so I'd like to think all the smoke residue or whatever you'd call it is gone from my lungs and inside of my nose. They say when you quit smoking everything tastes and smells better. Well, food tasted fantastic when I smoked so no issues there. It tastes just as fine now as it did then, except the after taste of it lingers longer than it did when I smoked-cause I'd always have a nice smoke after a wonderful meal, and after an ordinary meal, too. Gosh, I miss smoking.

It's the ritual of it that I miss the most. Get on the phone, have a cigarette, take the dogs out for a walk & have a cigarette, escape from work for a few mins & have a cig, The "after Thanksgiving dinner" cigarette is one of the memorable ones, so is the after Christmas and Easter dinner ones, and lets not forget the after a piece of birthday cake ones, too. And of course the after sex smokes, smoked in the bathroom or kitchen because Hubby hates smoking. Where was I going with this? Oh, the smelling part. Yes, perfume seems to smell no different now that I no longer smoke. I expected to be blown away by the stronger scents but it hasn't happened. Except for when I was at the pharmacy counter at Wallygreens and someone around had heavy handily applied Angel and it nearly knocked me out. It's strange, I've worn Angel since I came home from the hospital (Angel Les Parfums de Cuir) and it didn't bother me. The Angel behind the pharmacy counter blew me away, it kind of made me sick.

 Editing to add: Geeze I write these posts and leave 'em in draft. I've always had trouble finishing things. ADD in action here. Here we are 2 weeks later and I'm just going to hit publish, otherwise it'll sit in draft along with everything else that I haven't fully gathered my thoughts over.