By Thomas
I saw a series of pictures of someone’s perfume collection the other day. High-end scents, all arranged by house in a black cabinet with glass shelves and LED lighting. Shelves devoted to a single house, or a couple of houses, and more juice then even the most devoted junkie could wear in two lifetimes. One of these shelves cost more than my entire herd, and it made me wonder just how much it ought to cost to smell good.
Soap can be had pretty cheap, but that doesn’t really help here.
So I went back to a source who has been reliable in terms of cheap-and-cheerful scents. Her signature scent is called New Spice, and I thought…let’s give it a whirl.
New Spice is rather gourmandy, with a nod to the older crowd. It goes on in a fruity-spicy-lavender that’s more mellow than it sounds. Not much kick to it, at all, more of a gentle spicy hum that stays in the background. I never tried to overapply, but something tells me that this one isn’t a throat-grabber, so long as you keep it sensible.
A few hours later there’s not a lot of change to note. The lavender has faded, leaving a woody/cardamom note along with the fruity/spicy hum. A little patchouli peeks out here and there; not enough to give off a hippie vibe, more like a hint of dirt under the fingernails.
Longevity is good: it doesn’t jump out at you by the end of the day, but it is still present and can be easily found with a sniff. Despite the ‘spice’ name, there are no sharp edges or grating notes to be found here, it’s a casual, relaxed kind of scent – not a lot of drama, but sometimes, you just want to smell good without a lot of hassle and expense. New Spice fits the bill.
I saw this picture of the black cabinet as well...;-)
ReplyDeleteBut you don't need to HAVE them all...you can also write about all the perfumes of this world without owning them.
Are we ok? YES! And I love reading your blog.
All my best, Lena
Thomas -- Great post.
ReplyDeleteThough I'm not familiar with New Spice, I am familiar with the phenomenon of certain excellent scents being banished to drugstores and bargain basements, for no scent-related reasons. (It can only be licensing agreements, I imagine.) Case in point: Hard to believe the the crisp and invigorating Halston 1-12 and the warm and yet racy Z-14 can be had for a fraction of what you find "upstairs", i.e. far away from the bargain basements. Even the Halston bottles are aesthetically pleasing. As for Pino Silvestre -- well, the bottle is indeed tacky, but the scent is anything but! (In fact, it's nothing less than the base for ultra-expensive X for Men, as it turns out.) Yet again: another drugstore casualty.
Take care,
Michael
mmm. New Spice. On our first date, my boyfriend hugged me and I thought how delicious he smelled! This is just such an appealing scent - softly spicy, with just a hint of lime in there at first. So much better than most of the overdone, overpriced scents out there. And its great that the scent is affordable and available as cologne and as shave soap and balm. So when I lean in for a kiss, that's the only scent he's got going. He won't wear anything else now. :)
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