Gwen's blog

^{Image - Vanilla planifolia - wikipedia}

^{Image - courtesy of Penhaligon's}

I am besotted with Violet Blonde. It's been going on for years now and likely, will go on for many more. I suppose it was inevitable, given my penchant for violet-centric fragrances, that I would fall hard for this beauty from American fashion designer Tom Ford.

We’ve written about a lot of colognes over the years. Uncomplicated, refreshing and light colognes are the ideal antidote for hot, sticky summer days and nights. But for me, they serve another purpose.
 

Photo courtesy of Hiram Green

Vetiver is a favourite fragrance note here in the niche. The number of blogs devoted to fragrances centred around vetiver, makes it safe to say that Kay and I have a weak spot for chrysopogon zizanioides, the fast-growing perennial bunchgrass A/K/A vetiver, which belongs to the family Poaceae. Though it originated in India, it is now grown in tropical regions everywhere, with Haiti, China and Indonesia among the top producers.

^{Guerlain Paris, Champs Elysee flagship store}

A young friend leant me her copy of 'Every Day', a novel by David Levithan. What she liked most about the book, and what she wanted to share with me, were Levithan's thoughts on love and desire and yearning. She had highlighted a few passages for me, among them was a quote by the narrator, 'A':

Oh, Penhaligon's, when we first met, it was love at first sniff. That love burned bright for a long time, but like all relationships, we've had our ups and downs, our ebbs and flows. But we've hung in there, and our commitment has paid off, with some of the best fragrances produced by any niche line in the last few years, like Agarbathi.

^{Photo: perfumeniche.com}

^{LouLou by Cacharel, EdP vintage bottle, 1989}

When I started this blog, I drew up a list of the fragrances I own, ones I wanted to buy, and ones I would never sell as decants from my collection. One of the perfumes on my list was LouLou by Cacharel.