British Niche & Indie Perfumery Series Part II

The idea is to do short reviews of British based niche & indie perfume houses. It won’t be all encompassing. Everything I review will be from my collection or from samples that I have paid for. I do hope you enjoy it. My daily wears will be on my Insta account, Alityke. Some may not make it onto the blog cos life can get in the way & I’m no longer as organised as I once was. Pix will be mine.

Boutique from Bedeaux. Perfumer Amanda Beadle

I wrote this before getting out the card & doing the pix. I can smell lavender beeswax floor polish on blond wood. The impression of new cloth & the starchy steam press smell that clings to them. A distinct iris delivers the powderiness of dust motes visible in the sunshine. Turns out Amanda’s inspiration is an upmarket boutique & yes absolutely. I note the card says Boutique is perfect with jeans & a white shirt. I’m in a cream hoodie & my favourite vintage Levi’s & feel underdressed. On a suited & booted man this could be devastating. On me? I need to be in a perfectly tailored suit too.

It’s Saturday & I decided to wear a long term love from a British Artisan perfumery brand. I am in Dryad from Papillon Artisan Perfumer created by the Goddess that is Liz Moores

Dryad

Green, bitter, herbal, citrus. These leaf clad nymphs strew their scented gifts before the smiling goddess. This earth deity, seated on a throne of growing branches & dried grasses, surrounded by jonquil. She wears her flowing hair threaded with blue & yellow flowers. Her gown of velvet textured leaf green, scented with fragrant sachets against the winter gone. She greets the twilight with a wave of her pale hand & the tiny star like blossoms above her twinkle, lighting the grove & releasing their hypnotic floral sweetness.

Dryad is my earthly goddess fragrance, this goddess is smiling, welcoming, calm & inviting. Dryad is the essence of nature’s love. How I adore Dryad, she is “mine”.

Jo Malone Black Vetyver Cafe. Perfumer Jo Malone

Sunday was Jo Malone Black Vetyver Cafe. I believe this was from prior to the buy out & is now long discontinued. I’ll keep this short. This smell of coffee & dry vetiver. These notes have mellowed over time & are more pleasing to my nose. Good lifespan for a cologne from Jo Malone. I’ll wear more often but won’t hunt it down

Northburn Citron Blond. Perfumer unknown

NorthburN are a luxury candle & lifestyle boutique in Whitley Bay, Northumberland. They also sell online https://north-burn.co.uk/. As well as their candles etc they do three Eau de Parfums. I’m currently wearing Citron Blond, a dry peppery citrus which gives me a white flash. A very bright & uplifting without a hint of sweetness. What is s very pleasant finding is that this peppery citrus is still present after 8 hours. Admittedly as a skin scent but I’m happy with that.

British Niche & Indie Perfumery Series Part 1

This series has been in my mind since 2023. Life got in the way for many months but today, 23rd April I have finally got going!

My idea is to do short reviews of British based niche & indie perfume houses. It won’t be all encompassing. Everything I review will be from my collection or from samples that I have paid for. I do hope you enjoy it. My daily wears will be on my Insta account, Alityke. Some may not make it onto the blog cos life can get in the way & I’m no longer as organised as I once was. Pix will be mine.

Verdant from Boujee Bougies. Perfumer Pia Long.

As it’s supposed to be spring I wanted to start with a green & Verdant is just that, verdant. It smells of leaves, thick, shiny, tropical leaves. Yet there is what I perceives as something crackling, almost like electricity in the air & petrichor. Yet Verdant is cool, those leaves are in a British (or Finnish) conservatory & the weather is grey & cool, there may be rain later. Just like today! Verdant is a love. It smells of buildings as much as plant life & it crackles. Absolutely gender neutral

Citrus & Cologne tester presentation from Scents of Man

My next sample from a British house is Honeysuckle by Scents of Man. This is part of the Citrus & Cologne tester set in the photo above.

Notes card for Honeysuckle. Perfumer Andrea Byrne

Honeysuckle opens earthy & almost savoury. Not photorealistic, sniffing honeysuckle flowers but the smell of the whole climber, leaves, vines, trellis & damp earth. I don’t find any sweetness until almost an hour in. Then the nectarine becomes present over the life like spring florals & green leaves. After another hour the savoury, crunchy green returns to bring that ying/yang tension so keeping it interesting. Leans slightly to the feminine side of gender neutral.

Scents of Man Sky Hill. Perfumer Andrea Byrne.

As it’s supposed to be spring I’m sticking with the Scents of Man Citrus & Cologne sample set. Today is Sky Hill. Happy juice. I’m very fond of a lime centric fragrance. They are generally hidden in the shadow of lemons & mandarines, yet limes give extra zing & freshness & are less sweet & foodie than other citrus in scents. Sky Hill’s opening is zingy & slightly piney, another note I’m fond of. The best descriptor is breezy. This continues into the mid-section, aromatics & sparkly white flowers keeping this an easy wear. Four to five hours in that sparkle & juiciness is still there in puffs I keep catching. Up close there is gentle balsamic depth. Definitely gender neutral.

Hello from Anfi del Mar, Gran Canaria

The view from our apartment garden

After all the concern about not being able to leave Mr Jarvis Cockapoo last week, he recovered enough for our eldest’s plan to swing into action. Both the hound & the adult child are doing splendidly! The youngest should be taking over on Wednesday evening.

I collected the four Hermescence travel sizes at the airport on the way out here & for downloading the app got an extra 5% off! If you’re travelling & can order ahead I recommend it!

Mr JC at the beach last year but no more fish & chips for him

Whilst mucking out the glory hole under the stairs last week & found some handbags that had been put away. They hadn’t been used again during the plague years & had been “forgotten” about. They had items in them. The usual tissues, mints & now dry ballpoint pens, but a couple had treasure in them. The Irregular Choice Cat bag held the long lost d’Orsay La Dandy pour Femme & at the very bottom of the saddle bag I found the perfect holiday scent in the form of 4160Tuesdays Lemon Sherbet.

Rare as rocking horse poop d’Orsay La Dandy

So what have I been wearing with five perfume choices? Either Osmanthe Yunnan or Lemon Sherbet. Both refreshing for me, yet unintrusive to others. In the heat here, even in the evening anything punchy would be too much.

Normal service should resume next week. I have a series planned that I hope we will all enjoy.

Smells of the Week

Been a very poorly boy

Since Mr Jarvis Cockapoo has been very ill this past week, including admission to Vet Hospital, my smells of the week haven’t been perfumed. Well, not in the personal fragrance sense. Those of a delicate disposition stop reading here.

My week has been filled with runny yellow 💩, doggy 🤮, wet Prescription dog food & the antiseptic smell of the vet’s surgery.

Our eldest son has put a plan together with his younger brother to come over & stay at our house to care for Jarvis so we can still have our planned holiday. I am so grateful to them as well as immensely proud of them.

These two have become wonderful men

An update on the Duty Free order flying out on Saturday, I’ve opted for 4 Hermescences in 15ml travel sizes. Rose Ikebana, Cuir d’Ange, Ambre Narguile & Osmanthe Yunnan.

*Photos are mine, dog is mine, children are mine & now in their 30s. No Ad/PR 🤭

Rashes & Fragrance

My poorly fur child

I started writing this a while ago & planned to do much more research before letting it out into the wild. As my fur child isn’t well I haven’t had time to do more work on it. Please do comment though

Who has ever had a rash or other actual allergic reaction to a fragrance?

I’m not talking headache or nausea, they are intolerances, but full blown allergic reactions.

My answer is yes, just once, to SL Fleurs d’Oranger. I got a rash exactly where I had applied it & nowhere else. I went away with washing it off, antihistamine tablet & cream.

I get allergies & develop new ones all the time. Drugs, some foods, plant saps (not just ivy & giant hogweed), tree pollen, rape pollen. Idiopathic urticaria. My immune system is hyper. Yes I’m one of those annoying people. Yet only once have I been allergic to a perfume.

This isn’t an IFRA rant or even an anti EU Regulator rant (I miss being in the EU, so many things that make life easier & more pleasurable have been lost). It is simply an enquiry about how many of my tiny audience of fragrance wearing audience have had an allergic reaction to fragrance.

In today’s world perfumes of the past with there dead animal ingredients, known carcinogens etc are never going to be re-released. Nor should they be. I want musk deer, beaver & civet cats to thrive not die so I can swap out my body odour for theirs. Getting melanoma from large amounts of bergamot isn’t a great idea either, so I accept some regulations are a good thing.

Tom on Perfume Posse is all for labelling perfumes with allergy warnings like products that contain allergens like nuts & mustard. He also posits that fags & booze are known killers but are still on sale with warnings. So why not fragrance? He is not alone, others have made this suggestion too.

Did you read Pia Long’s & Christophe Laudamiel’s excellent open letter to the regulators in 2023? What are your thoughts?

My idiopathic urticaria

Mojave Ghost Byredo

My 8ml bottle of Byredo Mojave Ghost arrived as part of the SpaceNK fragrance edit I wrote about in my last post.

8ml splash bottle

Notes from Fragrantica: Top – Sapodilla, Ambrette. Mid – Magnolia, Violet, Sandalwood. Base – Ambergris, Cedar

What do I smell? It opens sort of mixed fruity musky with something throat tickling. This is followed by green, sweet violets creeping in. This makes me think of confectionery. Weird confectionery. Quite possibly from outer space. That tickle in the throat remains, as if these sweeties might have irritant hairs. At this point I want to scrub but in the interest of this blog piece, I shall suffer for my art!

A couple of hours in & I continue to suffer, took Mr Jarvis a park walk. Even under a sweatshirt & coat I kept getting whiffs of woody sweet. No white flowers, crystallised violet leaves & petals & the throat tickle of sandalwood. Not the creamy, soft sandalwood that is my preference. This makes my throat itch & feel tightened. I’ve smelt something similar, a shampoo from Sol de Janeiro.

In the drydown now & little has changed. Still sweet, still violetty, though less so in the base & still that throat itch. Still smells of Sol de Janeiro shampoo. Why won’t it fade??

In summary? I rarely think “yuk” when I sniff a fragrance, but that was my immediate response. Whatever the sapodilla or Jamaican Nesberry is, I don’t want to find it in anything again. I admit to having past form with modern sandalwood perfumery giving me an itchy sensation in my throat. Mojave Ghost is clearly not for me. Interestingly eBay UK already had a large number of these 8ml bottles listed.

For those of a “certain age” you may remember Blaze by Max Factor. Mojave Ghost bears a striking resemblance to Blaze.

*Travel size of Mojave Ghost was part of the SpaceNK Fragrance Edit that I bought

** Terrible photo by me

Awesome Samples

I hadn’t anything planned for this week after last week’s lurgy. Yet an email from SpaceNK reminding me my loyalty points needed spending led me to a new arrival of a fragrance sample bag. What a sample bag it is!!!

The SpaceNK World of Fragrance edit contains:

7.5ml Diptyque Eau des Sens EdT travel spray

8.5ml Escentric Molecules Molecules 01+Ginger EdT travel spray

DS & Durga Greatest Hits Vol 1 discovery box

8ml Byredo Mojave Ghost EdP mini bottle

Floral Street discovery set

Ellis Brooklyn Salty or Sweet set of 3x6ml roller balls of Myth, Salt & Sweet.

Tory Burch Divine Moon EdP 7.5ml travel spray

Jo Loves White Rose & Lemon Leaves 10ml travel spray.

Plus a nice thick cotton flat bottomed make up bag.

I’m happy with this edit

Now the best bit, the cost of this edit in the UK is £70 & its value is £205. I had loyalty points to use so didn’t even pay the £70!

Do I love them all? To be fair other than the Jo Loves, which I do love & the Diptyque which is a strong like, I don’t know. These larger sizes give me an opportunity to really wear them. The DS & Durga Greatest Hits Vol 1 alone retails for £55!

Sadly, I just checked & it is currently out of stock but there is a Notify Me button so more stock is expected.

I’m currently wearing M01+Ginger & thoroughly enjoying the refreshing fresh ginger playing peekaboo. Quick note, after 24 hours I can still pick up the remains of M01+Ginger. This one I happy as a sand boy to have!

Flu Stops Play

I have a sample series planned. I have many, many samples ready to go. Planned to start the sampling yesterday (17th March) but DH has given me flu or at least a flu like illness & my little snout is on strike.

Airport courtesy of Pexels

In the mean time let’s have suggestions for a holiday fragrance. Many will know that it is my habit to not take a perfume on holiday with me. I buy in duty free on the way & only wear that perfume whilst on holiday.

We are flying from our small local airport, meaning there is little available on site. However, I can order to click & collect. The choice then includes Hermes, including Hermescences in travel sizes, some Amouage, a few Atelier Cologne, Diptique, Guerlain, Lancôme including some of the Maisons, run of the mill Chanels, Penhaligons & Van Cleef & Arpels.

For holiday fragrances I like lightish, fruity, citrus & even a bit trashy. Come on everyone, throw some suggestions at me!

Downsizing Update

Pic of my grand fur baby for cuteness only

Yes, I am still downsizing my perfume collection & now I’ve really got the bit between my teeth I’ve started on clothing & shoes! Last weekend I listed over 40 items! I’m also approximately £2,500 better off!

My professional clothes are in the process of being prepared for donation to a specialist charity. Some shoes & coats too.

I’ve been quite good at sticking to the purchase rules. February brought me Azuree Legacy & Les Nuits d’Hadrien from eBay. Azuree Legacy was for research & about a quarter of RRP as I wrote recently. Les Nuits d’Hadrien is an old love. I did cheat in February though. After testing current Azuree I found the chip fat note & texture had gone! Yippee! So I ordered a bottle from the EL site.

Not cheating, as I used my Xmas & birthday vouchers, the bottle of Les Abstraits Belle Ame from Saintecellier.com arrived. Beautifully gift wrapped & with a selection of samples. Brooke really does lead the way in customer service! I didn’t take photos, I was way too excited & not of the social media generation. I did spray Belle Ame lavishly & she is just as gorgeous as I remember!

Have you bought anything recently? Was anything added to your wish list or must sniff list?

*My grand fur baby is now a huge 8kg & named Lizard Man

Cheap Thrills 10

River Avon (bad joke)

Let’s talk about one of the biggest global perfume & beauty houses. Avon.

What do you think of when you hear or read Avon? So many immediately make judgement of cheap, boring, even basic products. In my opinion that isn’t the case. As with all perfume houses the offering can be hit & miss but, you will never fork out £200+ on something unexceptional.

Let’s start with a pillar fragrance, Far Away. *£4.50 10ml, £10 30ml, £14 50ml, £22 100ml, all EdP. A lovely cuddle in a bottle, soft, floral amber that lasts all day. Does have coconut in the opening that gives it solar warmth rather than Bounty Bar. A complex perfume that can be worn any time. A compliment getter.

Far Away has many flankers. I’ll review a few of them.

Far Away Splendoria *£4.50 10ml, £12 50ml. Claims to have white oud. I don’t know what white oud is but I don’t recognise oud here. I smell fruity floral vanilla with some sourness. Good longevity. Not my favourite.

Far Away Beyond the Moon *£4.50 10ml, £1 sample, £16 50ml. Parfum/extrait. Claims to have Belle de Nuit flower as its main note & wild cherry. Thankfully not a cherry cough syrup but this smells “cold” like a cordial with way too much crushed ice. This almost numbs the nose leaving only vaguely fruity floral. In me it didn’t last & I was grateful.

Avon is available directly online, from Reps or via Amazon

*Items currently discounted for a limited period.

**Pic from Pexels