Tag Archives: Spiritueuse Double Vanille

Perfumes for a Nutcracker

December 12, 2014PerfumeAngel Eau Sucre, Aomassai, Carven's Le parfum, Conafetto, Established Cognac, Honey Blossom, Musc Tonkin, Rien, Spiritueuse Double VanilleBlacknall Allen

The NYC Ballet Nutcracker

Or a sugar plum fairy for that matter; you can take your pick. The ballet’s been a Christmas tradition in the greater NYC area for ages, and it’s hard to run into young girls who haven’t been dragged to the The Nutcracker along with reluctant fathers and brothers.

The Hub was kinder than most of the former and subsidized a trip tothe theater. I remember taking my daughter and my pint sized nephew to see the ballet in Stamford one year. Nephew complete with miniature necktie and daughter in a frilly skirt. She was three. Surprisingly they both had a good time and came away clutching small nutcrackers in their sticky fingers. Continue reading →

And One More Word on Vanilla

September 26, 2014People, Perfume, PlantsHaarmann& Reimer, Jacques Guerlain, Spiritueuse Double Vanille, Vanille Tonka, VanillinBlacknall Allen

Three dimensional Vanillin

The word I have in mind is vanillin. Vanillin is one of the earliest synthetics from 1874 actually when first produced by the firm of Haarmann & Reimer, and you would recognize the smell even if you were not fascinated by fragrance because vanillin, like the SPECTRE organization in James Bond stories is everywhere, though mostly these days in food, along with its close associate ethylvanillin. If you’ve eaten candy bars you’ve eaten vanillin. Continue reading →

Guerlain Vanillas

September 22, 2014People, PerfumeBois d'Armenie, Emeraude, Francois coty, Jacques Guerlain, No 25, Plus Que Jamai, Quand Vient L’Ete, Shalimar, Shalimar Light, Spiritueuse Double Vanille, Terracotta Voile d’Ete, Tonka ImperialeBlacknall Allen

Decadent Vanilla

You can’t wear Guerlain without wearing vanilla. It’s not even worth making the experiment because Guerlain equals vanilla, and there is no version of vanilla that Guerlain hasn’t whipped up, baked up, brewed up or macerated in just about endless variations during its nearly two hundred year history.*

First a disclaimer, I’m not a vanilliac. But I like the note . When I was younger I was sure I didn’t, and avoided Guerlains, but time Continue reading →

Vanilla in the Heat

June 27, 2014Perfume, PlantsEmeraude, Fleur de Comores, Go Ask Alice, Indigo Vanilla, Izmir, Shalimar Lite, Spiritueuse Double Vanille, Vanille Galante, ZeldaBlacknall Allen

Vanilla almost seems made for the woolens of fall and winter, a comforting and almost a warming scent. But vanilla can also have cold aspects or allude to boardwalk in a heat friendly way, one that I’ve learned to take advantage of with both recent and vintage scents. Continue reading →

The Scent of Chocolate, Bread, and Vanilla

May 5, 2012PlantsClematis Montana, Clematis Paniculata, Guerlain, Parfumerie Generale, Spiritueuse Double VanilleBlacknall Allen

A scent not to be found inside a bottle created by Guerlain, even though you might well think that, and no, it wasn’t something from Parfumerie Generale either, it was a clematis in flower, in a yard, one town over from mine.

I should explain that I am a walker. Scarcely a week passes that I don’t go for a two mile walk, three or more times, and one of the best aspects of all that walking, is that I can see and smell whatever is in bloom that week in my neighborhood. This last week one of the things in bloom was Clematis Montana (or C. Montana rubens if I introduce the plant formally here). Montana’s the small anemone flowered clematis that blooms in the spring, and lots of people grow it for its carpeting effect of pale pink flowers up to thirty feet, but what that vine should be famous for is the scent. Continue reading →

aperfumeblog by Blacknall Allen

Musings by a woman who regularly gets led around by the nose