Saturday, July 31, 2010

Water lily

Musings from cottage country

For the first time I actually smelled a live water lily. It's remarkably like what I was expecting. I've read that there is no natural water lily extraction or essence in perfume, all water lily accords are created synthetically. 

The live lily is fresh, lightly sweet, a little aquatic and a little lemony. Sort of like the peony but without any rosiness.

On another topic, I just read The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr, his journalistic look into the perfume industry in New York and Paris, focused around the creation of two perfumes Un Jardin sur le Nil by Hermès and Sarah Jessica Parker, Lovely. I feel changed. Blinders have come off my eyes. I'm sorry for any stupid things I may have said about perfume or the industry. This book explains so much - about the art form, the formulas, the use of synthetics vs. "natural" ingredients and more. I've already written about Un Jardin sur le Nil and now I am going to have to go get a tester of Lovely, and some of the other perfumes discussed in the book. The paperback itself came with a small test strip of Lovely, but maybe it was old, all that was left was base notes, but they were nice basenotes - a woody musk that lingers on the skin.

For all you Canadians, have a great long weekend. This will be my only post, I'm heading back down to the dock.

Photo: mine

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