How are you getting on with the Fresh Laundry?

It is very fresh smelling and I like the decision about whether or not to put it on. It makes a day at work that bit more special.

OTOH part of me still thinks it smells like fabric conditioner.

I'm very pleased to hear you're getting on well with it. All our days should have special touches.

It wasn't always the case but these days I do love me some fragrances.

Obviously much of the market and marketing of perfume is prone to or emblematic of the cruddier aspects of the usual late capitalist malarkey (e.g. overly inflated pricing for un-deserving releases) but I do love the whole story, drama and connection you can get from a fragrance especially the more niche stuff.

Guerlain Shalimar: I love it, but it really does seem to be ever other person's grandmother's fragrance lol. Anyone under 40 that has worn it will eventually have someone tell them they smell like their nan. Probably at an inappropriate moment.



Tom Ford Fkn Fab: I get why they named it that but if you're going to feature the word F*cking I'd have expected something far more... animalic or much more primal mixed in with the other accords. All I get is a bit of tonka, large waft of lavender and then play-dough. It's a nice enough smell oddly, but not worthy of the name imo. Needs more musk in there at least; Frederic Malle's Musc Ravageur is the sort of vibe I was expecting. Seems a bit of a wasted opportunity in that regard.

No, I think heavy musk would make it seem dirty. I like that it's light. It's a casual candy sexy rather than a raunchy hot sweat soaked night sexy.

If anyone told me that I reminded them of my grandmother I'd be beside myself with pleasure because she was gorgeous and elegant and neat, and radiated kindness.

If they told me I reminded them of my other grandmother (the one known as Nan), as they actually do from time to time, I'm also ok with that because she's glamorous in a jaded South London sort of way, hard as nails, and always made up to the nines by breakfast. When not wearing false eyelashes, she separates her eyelashes with a safety pin in between coats of mascara.

While the paramilitary wing of my family are far less knowledgable about scent than my mothers side and don't have wide ranging personal collections, my Nan's thing has always been Chanel No.5, which she lashes on like it comes from a tap.

This is exactly what I was expecting a Trinny top 10 fragrances video to be like...

Portofino and Fracas are not favourites of mine, but I'll watch the video because I like Trinny and as I've told her myself, she's done her bit (as old squaddies say).

It's not her fault most British people don't have three sectioned full length mirrors to check what they look like. That was always going to be a losing battle.

I've never got amber from Portofino. I don't enjoy citrus stuff but I love love love amber. If it was as strong a base as she says, I'd have noticed. It's interesting that we all have different blind spots over the same product.

I've just remembered I need to replace my Hermes Caleche, which I don't think I've reviewed here yet. I once saw a couple fall out the front of a caleche in Marrakech when the horse dropped dead. It was quite funny.

A current and very affordable current favourite of mine is Heliotrope Gingembre, from Fragonard. My mother gave it to me and I love it. It's the scent of summer the far more expensive Diptyque one failed to offer, which I discussed here. Lasts for days.

Decent video, much wisdom there. We come from different places - she's strongly citrus, I'm strongly not.

Even on Santa Maria Novella we don't agree - I think pomegranates are for eating, and will be sticking strictly to my unbeatable Acqua di Colonia as discussed on page one.

A big recommendation of mine is Aedes de Venustas which is one of the great thrills of New York. I wish they'd open here because the staff are far nicer than the cows who work at Les Senteurs in Belgravia - I can't bear it there.

I was once given an extended look of such disdain by an assistant there that before I left I told her that until I noticed no policeman at the door I had assumed she was Cherie Blair.

I'll have to go through this thread properly, some of the picture links seem to have stopped working. I see I have mentioned Caleche. I've been getting on very well with the Jicky - I must've been on a particular phase when I said I thought it had been a mistake. It's been anything but.

I am slightly surprised that Trinny said the Tom Ford one was her most expensive, and that she'd had a shock at the till. That doesn't sound right at all, I've got a few that make his seem like something you'd clean the floor with and she's got far more money than I do.

Edit - estimated worth £5 million. That must be a mistake, she must be worth far more than that. She's dating Charles Saatchi - she should have jewellery worth that sum alone. I thought she was actually married into the Moussaieff family, of the eponymous and glittering Bond Street window displays. I see it was Elichaoff instead...

Yikes...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11980289/Trinny-Woodalls-ex-husband-his-fatal-fall-and-a-doomed-circle-of-friends.html

Definitely the wrong crowd to run with - one fatal fall might be an accident, etc. Bad news. Let's not be depressed - this is a thread for the ecstasy of fine fragrances.

Yeah I'm not too keen on a lot of citrus notes either. I tried Creed's virgin island water, which was just lots of lime and ginger and only a bit of coconut to round it off. Horribly cloying and sickly after 30 minutes. Like someone had spilt a moscow mule on you.

Don't have many Chypre-dom fragrances but this is my go to. Guerlain's Mitsuoko. I love it. There's citrus, and a palpable peach note in this but it's far more tolerable because it's both blended well with the other grassy and woody notes. I'd love to have the extrait but the EDP and EDT suit me fine for now.

I've considered Mitsouko. I don't get a lot of citrus from it because so much else overpowers it. I've weighed up for years whether to buy a bottle and so far haven't.

I'll give it a go once a month or so between now and the summer to see how it acts in different temperatures etc, and then judge whether a purchase is a good idea.

Perfumed ship sails. Isn't that chic.

No wonder the Romans slapped them about.

Due to an excess of pig ignorant f***wits in this godforsaken island, one of my favourite houses is no longer dealing with the UK. This, despite having catered to clientele as far back as the Stuart's. There's little point in getting someone abroad to buy direct and have it sent, because the customs duties on top would be fairly hefty. An Easyjet flight there and back to get it myself would be cheaper.