MAC - Naked Honey

Linden and clover, over and over

The linden trees out back are in bloom, and as I sat under them yesterday evening, I remembered MAC Naked Honey.

MAC released this perfume in 2009, a limited edition that quickly sold out. Luckily, I was reading perfume blogs like Bois de Jasmine and Perfume Posse at the time and their reviews had me hustling over to grab a bottle.

MAC Naked Honey is a honey-floral perfume that smells like linden blossoms. It's a sheer, green-tinged sweet smell, like standing beneath those waving boughs and breathing deeply the smell of gold and green dappled sunshine. Some people say is also smells like honeysuckle.

I smell clover. When I was a kid, we would spend the summer wandering the fallow fields and woodlots around my subdivision, playing in the tall grass, eating wild strawberries and raspberries and sucking the honey-sap out of clover blossoms. Naked Honey smells like summer memories to me.

MAC no longer sells Naked Honey, but if they ever decide to release it again, I highly recommend picking up a bottle. At about $25, it was some of the best perfume money I've spent.

House: MAC Creations Hue
Nose: Harry Fremont
Notes: white honey, floral notes, woodsy notes

Photo of linden: redteam
Photo of clover: Dendroica cerulea

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

Montale - Jasmine Full

Addictive jasmine, honeysuckle and orange blossom

Jasmine Full should come with a warning: Unless you love it strong, do not sniff up close for at least 10 minutes! Seriously, put that wrist down by your side and leave it there. This is strong stuff. You would not want to spill a bottle of JF in your purse. Luckily, there's little chance of that with the practical aluminum cylinders that Montale uses as bottles.

The top notes of JF smell like hyacinth and gasoline. I wonder if the smell of gasoline is an aspect of the jasmine? Aha, yes! The Scented Salamander says that a "nuance of gasoline exhaust appreciated by connoisseurs of the flower." So, I guess if you are a jasmine aficionado, you won't be surprised by the top notes. They grew on me; now I love that blast of gasoline and spicy, thick hyacinth. I even get a hint of lilac, like when they are blooming and you stick your face right into the bushes and inhale – overwhelming in a good way.

So trust me, if you're sensitive, only remote sniffing for a few minutes. You will be rewarded. After 10-15 minutes the most delicious scent will be wafting around you. JF becomes the most perfect night-blooming jasmine, dark and mysterious and narcotic, like the smell of lust on a summer night. Then it gets better. The jasmine becomes a base for two other white flowers to ride on: orange blossom and honeysuckle. If jasmine is lust, orange blossom and honeysuckle are first love, pure and sweet. I enjoy the honeysuckle the most.  JF is the only perfume I've tried that has this mouth-watering honeysuckle note. It floats around me like a veil.

The lighter white flowers are lifted by the heady jasmine beneath them and Jasmine Full becomes more than a soliflore; it's an incredibly beautiful, summer-flowers bouquet. Even better, my husband loves it too. Unfortunately, without any real base notes, like woods, musks, etc., the gorgeousness is fleeting. What's so strong at 8 am is mostly gone by 4 pm. All the more reason that I am going to need that full aluminum bottle for my purse.

House: Montale
Nose: Pierre Montale
Notes: Jasmine, honeysuckle and orange blossom

Photo: Madmoiselle Lavender