Opus Oils - Dirty, Sexy, Wilde

I can resist everything except temptation.

Opus Oils created Dirty, Sexy, Wilde to mark the one year anniversary of the opening of their Jitterbug Perfume Parlour. According to them, it was inspired by turn of the century perfume formulas for handkerchiefs.

To go with that turn of the century inspiration, they chose the image and name of the famous wit, the Irish writer, Oscar Wilde.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Dirty, Sexy, Wilde is, in fact, dirty and sexy. The green galbanum has an almost pine-like smell in the beginning. It's tarted-up with a little mandarin, then eases into a heart of dirty jasmine. It's also very animalic, right from the start; if you don't like civet be forewarned. It dries down to a lovely warm, floral, musky leather and salty skin. Dirty, Sexy, Wilde is like a warm and very rumpled bed, or the skin on your lover's neck the next morning. It's wonderfully indecent and charming at the same time. Pure sex.

House: Opus Oils
Nose: Kendra Hart
Notes: Galbanum, Red Mandarin, Violet, Rose, Night Jasmine, Blond Tobacco, Oakmoss, Coumarin, Musk, Civet and Ambergris

Opus Oils - Jitterbug

The day I realized I was a jasmine slut

Opus Oils opened their flagship store, the "Jitterbug Perfume Parlour," in glamorous Hollywood, California, in 2008. Joshua Hart, Co-Creator of Opus Oils’ Jitterbug Perfume Parlour describes the baroque looking store as

“... a cross between the movie “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and the book “Jitterbug Perfume.” Mix that with the TV show “Hart to Hart,” sprinkle it with “Moulin Rouge” and then add a dash of Flapper Speakeasy Culture.”

Sounds like fun, huh? I'd love to visit. The grand opening also marked the debut of their perfume, Jitterbug.

If you've never read the book Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins, and you like perfume, you must pick it up, it's a weird and wonderful romp. The story follows one ancient god, two immortal lovers, three perfumers and a crazy Irish man obsessed with immortality. The key to everlasting life may just be a holy grail perfume built around a note of incredible jasmine (and a secret ingredient in the base).

Jitterbug contains four different jasmine absolutes and opens with a strong note of "poopy" jasmine. The scent of jasmine, as well as that of gardenia, orange blossom and some other flowers, contains molecules called "indoles" that have a fecal smell. When a perfume review says "indolic" they mean that the dirty edge of the flower is discernible in the perfume. I assume this is attractive to insects, but weirdly, it is also part of what makes these flowers sexy to human noses. It turns out we like a little nasty in our sublime.

It was when I discovered that I was still enjoying Jitterbug, poopiness and all, that I realized how far gone I am. I am a jasmine slut. I adore jasmine and all of it's beauty and baseness and I can't get enough. I love it when it's green and virginal like in Love and Tears, Surrender; I love it when it makes me dizzy with gasoline fumes like in Jasmine Full and I love its funkiness in Jitterbug.

There's a hint of lemon the cut the thickness, but the funk lasts a good half hour before it resolves into just beautiful jasmine blossoms. Under the jasmine is lovely creamy sandalwood and warm, sweet, salty ambergris that smells like skin.  The ambergris is "beach found" which means it is real, natural whale vomit and thus extremely rare. Yet another something that sounds gross but is actually divine.

Opus Oils perfumes are all handmade with an emphasis on "natural" ingredients. They all have a base of coconut oil. I've never worn an oil-based perfume before, but it absorbs nicely, leave my skin soft, and seems to last a long time. There isn't much sillage from my little dabbings but even the next morning, my wrists still have a pleasant musky sweetness left from the ambergris with a hint of flowers. If there was a flower that could point one in the direction of immortality, I think it would be jasmine and wearing a little Jitterbug perfume behind the ears can't hurt.

House: Opus Oils
Nose: Kedra Hart
Notes: Four different kinds of Jasmine absolute, Honeysuckle, Lemon Essence, Orange Blossom, "Beach Found" Ambergris, Blond Tobacco & Sandalwood

Parfumerie Generale - Bois Naufragé

Summer lovers in a bottle

Bois Naufragé was inspired by the gorgeous photograph "Nu au bois flotté" by Lucien Clergue (1971). Sexy skin, sun-bleached wood and a sea breeze would be what you'd expect from this image.

There's been some disagreement on the perfumes blogs about whether Bois Naufragé fulfills expectations. Now Smell This didn't find it oceanic or sexy. Confessions of  a Perfume Nerd smelled pina colada.

But I'm one of those for whom Bois Naufragé works perfectly. To me, it smells like the beach. It starts with a very green note combined with coconut and the milky sweetness that together makes fig to my nose. The figs are salted with that fleur de sel note, but it's light, not over bearing the way I found Côte d'Amour to be too salty. In the middle there's a light, tart note, like a trace of lime. The dry down is slightly woody and musky.

Ok, that's not sounding beachy is it? But if I stop concentrating on the individual notes and just smell, Bois Naufragé resolves into the smell of the beach. There's a light sea breeze, the warm, lactonic (milky-sweet) and salty skin of someone nearby – sun tan oil washed off by the ocean – sand dunes and grasses all around.

Bois Naufragé reminds me of the movie Summer Lovers. The fig and the sea salt seem perfect for Greece. It gives me that relaxed, endless summer by the beach feel.

House: Parfumerie Generale
Nose: Pierre Guillaume
Notes: carob tree, also called "fig of Egypt", treated as driftwood, fleur de sel, ambergris


Photo: Le Nu au bois flotté, by Lucien Clergue
Image: Summer Lovers (1982)