Don't go there!!!

Yesterday evening, with much anticipation, I sprayed on my just-received decant of Serge Lutens Fumerie Turque. MMMmm, smelled nice....hour or so later, smelling very interesting....bedtime, still liking it. Not loving it, but I've already figured out that some of his perfumes take a while sometimes.

Woke up this morning..and OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT SMELL!!!!!!

I was immediately transported back to my grandparents house fire in the early 90's. They just lived a couple of blocks from me and we were over there often and it took at least 6 months for the stench from the fire to dissipate. When I woke up this morning, I could have been standing in that living room. Now I don't mind a little wood smoke smell, but plaster and carpet smoke?? I just can't do that.

I headed to the bathroom to scrub my wrists but that wasn't quite enough. So even though it's lazy Saturday and still morning, I got in the shower for about 45 minutes.

Whoooo, all better now, but I'm not wearing ANY perfume today. And unless I want to shower within a few short hours of spraying Fumerie Turque, I'm afraid I won't be wearing it again.

First experience with Serge Lutens

I'll tell you what started this obsession. I live in a relatively small city where the most upscale department store is Dillard's and there are no perfume boutiques. So occasionally I would get a wild hair and read about something (perfume) that sounded good and just order it online, unsniffed. I know, I know...

I read about La Parfum de Therese by Frederic Malle and it sounded like something I would like. But I'm not completely insane and it costs way too much to order without smelling it first (at the time, I was unaware of the fabulous decant community going on at Ebay). My daughter and I were planning to go to Dallas in late November for a concert. Yeah, we like the same music. Don't know if that's weirder for her or for me. And I remembered that there was a Barneys that had recently opened in Northpark and that they carry Malle. So we planned us a little side-trip. We took my daughter's little chihuahua, Stanley, who pranced along nicely. Man, I love taking dogs into fancy stores...hehehehe.
They had lots of very attentive salespeople and finally one who decided we were hers. I headed off toward the table with all the Malle fragrances and she headed off right after me. She started asking questions about what my favorite notes were and what fragrances I wore the most. Then she took the bottle I was trying to smell away from me and all but pushed me over to another table. That would be the Serge Lutens table. She grabbed my arm, pushed up my sleeve and sprayed Chergui all over it. And I nearly swooned on the spot..........

I didn't even know that I liked leather as a perfume note! Or tobacco. Or honey. And how did this complete stranger (completely bossy stranger) know that I would love this? That kinda scares me. But now I am compelled to investigate all things Lutens. So far, so good. I have tried Clair de Musc, A La Nuit, Fleur d'Oranger, Daim Blond, Rahat Loukhoum, Tubereuse Criminelle, Chypre Rouge and Mandarine Mandarin. I like Clair de Musc and Tubereuse Criminelle and am slowly falling in love with Mandarine Mandarin. Thank God for decants, huh?

On a related note, we went back to Barneys two days later to try the whole Malle thing again, but no luck. That woman just insists they aren't for me. So I ordered a decant from Ebay. Don't have it yet, but I'm ready.

Yeahhhhh for me!

I decided to take the plunge and start one of these for myself. Probably a bad idea, because I know very little about the actual science of perfumery and what the actual notes smell like, but hey, I know what I like! All the wonderful blogs out there such as Perfume-smellin Things, Perfume Posse, Now Smell This, etc have inspired me to try things I had never even heard of and I'm so excited!

Right now, my absolute favorite perfume is Chergui by Serge Lutens. But I'm only allowing myself to wear it once a week so that "take your breath away" feeling remains. Other favorites are YSL's In Love Again, Bulgari Pour Femme and Voile de Jasmine, and a limited edition of Oscar de la Renta, can't think of the name of it but the bottom of the bottle is red. And I don't know what this says about me, but my go-to fragrance is Amazing Grace by Philosophy. I know it's a simple smell, but good grief, it just smells so good wafting up out of my cleavage throughout the day!

So I will try to update as I figure out what I'm doing. Thanks for reading!