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aperfumeblog by Blacknall Allen by Blacknall Allen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Monthly Archives: October 2011
Fixing a Hole
Back when Guts and I were first married, I got to have one of the things I wanted most: a garden. We had a ramshackle old house in a small Vermont town, and although the house was really no bargain, … Continue reading
Posted in Plants
Tagged Caron Fete des Rose, Graham Thomas, Joy, Parfums de Rosine, Stella
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Incarnality
Mona di Orio has had a hard time of it. She received catastrophically bad reviews from that de facto dean of perfume critics Luca Turin who described her perfume Oiro as : “Third world air freshener for the price of … Continue reading
The Emperor’s New Scent
It was Mrs. Bonaparte who turned the general on to scent. Left to his own devices, Napoleon might have preferred the smell of gunpowder in the morning, but he was besotted by Josephine and perfume was – civilizing. It is … Continue reading
Posted in Bruce Ware Allen, People, Perfume
Tagged Aqua Admirabilis, Eau de Cologne, Gian Paolo Feminis, Houbigant, Josephine, Napoleon, Osmothèque, Rancé
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International Woman of Mystery
Another in my series of scents that are outrageously priced, I’m considering one of the limited edition Guerlains: Elixir Charnel Oriental Brulant. It was in the neighborhood of 255.00 per 75 mls. On Ebay the last price I saw listed … Continue reading
Boozeless Barflies
You wouldn’t think that drinking is an allusive pleasure, would you? It is, but in a strange manner. If we do go down to the well on any given night and drink our fill, it seems that we do like … Continue reading
The Chypre’s Child
It was 1917 and François Coty invented something new – a perfume that was floral, but also woody, light but also dark, sexy but also restrained, and, like Jicky, a fragrance that could be worn by women or by men. … Continue reading
The Green Two Stroke Engine
There are whole genres of perfumes out there which are supposedly familiar terrain, only I find that in fact they’re almost completely uncharted territory, I’ve never really explored them properly at all. Take, for instance, the green floral. The very … Continue reading
What a Fougère Wears Under Its Kilt
Some time ago, Alan Cumming decided to join the group of celebrities releasing a scent. Arguably, he and Jane Birkin were the only two celebrities to back interesting ones. Everyone else seemed to be pushing a synthetic variant of something … Continue reading
Posted in Perfume
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Josephine and Caporal Violette
The subject is violets, Napoleon, and Josephine Beauharnais, the original trophy wife. Well, highly decorative wife, at any rate, and she would have been rich – “rich as a Creole” was the expression in pre-Revolutionary France – had her sugar … Continue reading
Posted in Bruce Ware Allen, Perfume, Plants
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The Non-Speaking Perfume
What if you want to affirm your elegance in a work-a-day world without revealing anything else about yourself? It sounds like a pretty familiar proposition. Anonymity can be a powerful thing, come to think of it, and that’s why in … Continue reading
Posted in Perfume
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