Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Two Perfume Addicts Walk Into Scent Bar... or: How I bought Bois 1920 Extreme and learned to love geranium


The impromptu business trip my husband had in Los Angeles gave me a perfect opportunity to:
a. Escape the miserable weather
b. Meet my scent twin, Tom
c. Visit Scent Bar

What could be better?
All of the above plus eating heavenly macarons that taste like Paris. But more on that later.

Over the last decade I've met several online friends from various web sites. But Tom and I share something special (other than perfume addiction, love for elliptical trainers and certain way of looking at the world): We smell alike. I'm not sure if it's perception, skin chemistry or both, but we're definitely scent twins. I go on many sniffing adventures with my husband and have always made liberal use of his skin to test more perfumes than my limbs allow, but if I want to know exactly how something smells, I need to spray it on Tom. It's quite amusing, really, and Tom, who is every bit as charming, funny and witty as he in his writing , is a perfect twin.

My husband might not fully admit it, but I suspect he was just as eager to play with the pretty bottles in the store. He knows what he likes (spice, insence, vetiver) and what he doesn't (marine notes), which helped him find and fall in love with L’homme sage by Divine. It is, indeed, divine, and I'll have to spend some time exploring its rich goodness soon.

In the mean time, Tom and I were all over the place, going far out of our normal comfort zone. We tried Miller Harris Geranium Bourbon, a perfume with notes that should send us running for the hills (cassis berries, lemon geranium, turkish rose), only to discover that it's beyond gorgeous with our jaded chemistry. He bought a bottle and I would have done the same if I hadn't given my left wrist another sniff and realized that while I couldn't remember what I sprayed there, the nameless scent was the most beautiful thing I came across that day.

Tom checked my wrist and commented, "you just found your holy grail and lost it". No way. I was not leaving the store without my mystery perfume, so I started tracing back my steps until I found it: Bois 1920 Extreme. It went home with me.

Masculine scent? Who cares? No wonder my scent twin is a guy (and I'm ordering the Miller Harris soon. I need it for spring)

Now for those macarons... Read Tom's post about them in his blog and his account of our meeting on Perfume Smellin' Things.


Fern photo: WCS

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