The Fragrance of her Love
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 6, 2008
My Nanna regretted a little that her hands were no longer as smooth, but to me they were like butter, the butter we used to layer on cardamon and cinnamon yeast buns together. There wasn’t too much to say this time although we saw each other every day of my recent short visit except to cuddle and sit close as my 83 year old grandmother chided me for the gifts I brought or for not eating more of her lovingly prepared food. How can I put into words the love and gratitude I feel so deeply for her, the appreciation for the wardrobes full of clothes she has sewn for me over my lifetime.
She sewed her first dress when she was 12 years old to attend a school dance. Even now she shared with me that her hands have held thousands upon thousands of fabrics over her lifetime. Each time she fingers a fabric a little of her scent remains on the material. For every new outfit she made I could smell her. How was it that her body perfume pervaded every piece of material, even now?
In between cooking and sewing and sewing and cooking she nourished and clothed all her five children with raiments of love, made in the most fashionable materials and latest designs. This continued with her over 20 grandchildren and even her great-grandchildren and a great great grandchild. My grandmother had boxes of shiny buttons and baskets full of perfume, mostly avon, but some french perfumes, as well as Diorissimo. You gave me my first perfume, a little avon roll-on shaped like a native American Indian girl. Now, I tried to give you some perfume from Paris, but you said you were too old to wear perfume. But who needs perfume when your own body exudes a scent of sanctity?
She was always giving and never taking and nothing has changed. A lifetime habit of over generosity persists. Try refusing something, anything from her at your peril, she may even start to cry and her heart might break. There were some foods even on this visit which you wanted me to eat, including ice cream and chocolate. I never visited you without discovering your stash of chocolate myself or being offered some, but the chocolate cherries you kept secret. How is it that there is always spice cake in your freezer or fresh on the table, with cardamon, cinnamon, all spice and pepper? How many times did I gorge myself on raw yeasty dough out of impatience for the baked buns? Or overeat the easter rye porridge made with treacle, lemon and orange peel, doused in thick cream, which I still crave.
In the evenings we would sit on the swing by the pond, perhaps after having a sauna and inhaling the aromatic wooden panelling and feeling so clean. You would tell me stories about your childhood or mine. You still remember so much, like the wonderful six months you lived in Finland with us in your father’s cottage perched high on a rock in the countryside. You remembered picking wild strawberries and blueberries in the forest nearby with my brother and I, and him eating all his berries then tipping my basket over too. You made sima or fermented ginger lemonade with bobbing swollen raisins floating within, which we drank in the summer.
You never mentioned your sufferings to me, though I am sure you suffered deeply. You have always been so pleasant even if you have worried for others and with so many descendents, that was a lot of worrying and a lot of loving. Nanna, to me you are even more fragrant than a heavenly perfume, and more generous than a queen. Your food and clothes have become my flesh and bones and I am proud to be a descendent of yours. I know you worried from the moment you saw me last week about the day I would leave and whether you would ever see me again, seeing I live on the other side of the world. But I feel so close to you, even now I can smell you and you are in all of me. All of me is thanks to you. You mentioned hoping to see me in the heavenly realms one day if not before and I wondered how I might ever say goodbye to you. I can only tell you that to me you are still so beautiful and so near to me that I can’t imagine ever being far from you….
If you were a perfume Nanna, there would be zingy notes of ginger, lemon and wild berries. A heart of roses and lily of the valley and and a base of vanilla, cardamon, forest woods, fir and honey and I would wear you every day.
Images: The top was taken when my Nanna, Liisa Soininen was in her 20’s. The one below was taken last week on my visit to Australia, now aged 83.
Chanel Allure Homme Edition Blanche
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 6, 2008
Launching on 10th March in London, I was given a sneak preview and sample of this. The packaging is architectural and luxurious and the accompanying brochure is a work of art on thick card, gloss white printing on white and solar bronze. To quote it is “driven by design” It is a fragrance dedicated to fragrance “connoisseurs and lovers of beautiful things”. The scent is described as a fresh oriental by Jacques Polge, chic and truly different.
I usually steer clear of headache inducing men’s brews, but this smells wonderful on me, of bergamot and woods sprinkled with a blossom, teaspoon tip of sugar and mandarin. 
I will be reluctantly sharing this sample with my hubby to try. I doubt I will be the only woman buying this for a loved one only to furtively spray this macho drop of sicillian orchard grove on themselves too.
Latest London Scent News
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 6, 2008
10% of ALL perfumes, including Guerlain, Dior, Chanel, Annick Goutal and all others at Debenhams Department Store, Oxford St until this Friday. Some other perfumes are reduced between 25 and even 50%. Georgio, 50ml is reduced to £12.47 and 30ml Anais Anais to £13.95 less another 10%. All the latest celebrity perfumes are also on sale and the aisles are congested with perfume sales staff anxious to help you choose. But hurry, the last sale day is tomorrow.
Marjorie Midgarden by Summer Scent
just arrived at Liberties in London on Sat 1st March. The official launch date is the 1st of April. Unfortunately, they don’t have any information about the perfume yet, nor samples, but I was impressed. This is a lush golden floral based around a “mystical bloom” of undisclosed name. I smell yellow and white flowers, like daffodils, freesia and tuberose. There is an unusual story behind this one. The model advertising the fragrance is not a model at all and a mother of three. There is a fairy on the yellow packaging and the perfume bottle is handcrafted in Toronto with a lot of bling, painted gilding and crystal stopper. Here is their website.
Some of the listed ingredients includes, jasmine, orange blossom, cassis, genet and a sparkling mandarin top-note, with a soul of honey and musk. This perfume reminds me of a woman, now deceased who used to have a vintage clothing store called the Banana Room. Her shop was filled with her signature perfume, a Guerlain. Her long lithe and wrinkly fingers were covered in dozens of emerald and diamond rings and her ear lobes were stretched with the weight of her carats. Despite her advanced age at the time, she wore dark kohl under eyes and thick mascara on her lashes. She was ever so elegant, deeply tanned feminine and fascinating. There is something vaguely vintage about this scent too, though the coordinating gems would be more like gold and yellow diamonds. The perfume retails at £120 and is much richer than the eau de parfum at £80.
Evening Edged in Gold by Ineke
This is also exclusive to Liberties and in my opinion the most beautiful of the Ineke range. I smell rum balls and myrrh, sweet incense and candy reminiscent of some of my middle eastern scents, but without the heaviness. This might have some balancing aldehyde to lift and disperse the woods and resins. The poetry on the packaging is lovely. “Midnight candy.. star of the evening garden, Angels trumpet, osmanthus and saffron cast their golden spells.” Officially in addition to the above this has plum, cinnamon, leather and woods. I almost bought this one on the spot, without even trying it on my skin, but reason prevailed..
Cherry Blossom Gel Perfume by Loccitane
Opening the unusual bottle reminded me of a childhood white glue with brush cylinder I used to have.(That smelt way too good as I recall!) But this gel really has the texture of white glue and the lid holds a little brush to wipe on to your wrist. The texture is a little gloopy and surprising. I have tried many variations of perfume from solids, to roll-ons to atomizers and oils, but this is the first brush I have ever used to apply scent. The fragrance is charming enough, fresh and sweet with cherry, freesia and blackcurrant. Cheap too at only £13.oo.
It is wonderful to go travelling and then come back to my own stomping ground and discover lovely new smells that appeared while I was not looking.
Rose and Violet Macaroons
Fortnum and Masons now carry a box of rose and violet scented mini macaroons. I couldn’t resist including these, as well a couple of antique rose and violet cards from my own collection to sandwich them. Of course you can also find rose and violet tea, confit, creams, crystallised petals, marshmallows as well. Don’t forget to admire the gorgeous floral china tea cups for afternoon teas too. If visiting there, don’t miss out on their utterly divine and revamped perfume parlour on the second floor, where you can also smell Caron’s Violette Precieuse.
Parfum de Morny of 201 Regent Street
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 4, 2008
My first antique bottle purchased over 20 years ago was a full bottle of Parfum Violette by Morny. Who could have guessed then that I would be living near the old shop premises of that point zero bottle. On my recent visit to Australia, I retrieved from storage some of my vintage bottles, including the apothecary shaped Jicky by Guerlain with 1/5 of the gold liquid remaining, vintage Chanel 5 almost half full, as well as Mitsouko by Guerlain. I also have several vintage miniatures of other London perfumers including Gardenia by Ryot of London and Potter and Moores Mitcham Lavender, who also still make perfume. As part of the research for the perfume tours I am trying to locate former old perfume houses and the famous perfumer’s streets of olden times.
But in homage to my Morny bottle I will dedicate this brief blog entry to it. 201 Regent Street has an interesting history. From selling pianos in the 19th century to perfume in the early 20th and currently Church’s shoes owned by Prada are housed there. The site is on the corner of Conduit and Regent Street. Here is a lovely image from the Mary Evans Picture Library. Morny were established at these premises in 1910 in London and they were so successful that they even opened a branch in Paris. My bottle label says that they had a store in New York aswell. Some of their perfumes include Chaminade from 1908, June Roses from 1922 and Essence Mysterieuse, whose advertisement is pictured below, also courtesy of Mary Evans picture library.
Morny perfumes can still be purchased in selected chemists, though I believe the label has been taken over by Malibu Sun. Their fragrance range includes Lavender, Rose, Sandalwood and Fern. According to an article in a packaging journal they have just redesigned their packaging and relaunched some of the traditional English scents, including Lily of the Valley, just this January. So, I hope they will be appearing on chemist shelves in London shortly. With regards to my Violette perfume, I am extremely curious about how it smells and have been tempted on numerous occasions to prize the glass stopper from its apothecary shaped bottle, but the lid is stuck! Any suggestions on how I may open it without damaging the bottle would be most welcome.
Image Credits: Courtesy of the Staff at Church’s shoes, who currently reside at 201 Regents Street, the two side images are of the frescos, which belong to the Crown Estate and would have been exactly the same interior marble and frescos at the time of the Morny Shop, due to conservation stipulations.
Koala Cologne
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 4, 2008
I could smell the pungent aroma, of cough drops and to put it politely, droppings from afar. As I approached the Koala enclosure I was amazed at the rank but fascinating odour of the male Koalas, and bombarded the attendant allowing me to briefly pet a Koala with questions about their smell. The attendant told me the female koalas go wild over the smell. I just got back from a two week visit to Australia and spent as much time as I could spare shopping for Australian made fragrance, though this particular cologne was not on my to buy list, it did arouse my curiosity. The photo of a female koala was taken at Cleland Wild Life Reserve in the Adelaide Hills.
This was their breeding season in Australia, when the sternal gland in the males works overtime to secrete a strong, glistening scent with a musky eucalyptus aroma. Curious about its constituents I researched a little. Of the 600 or so eucalyptus tree species growing in Australia, koalas choose aprox 120 of the species to feast on. Each Koala has its own unique aromatic fingerprint and they use scent marking to define territories and attract mates. They do this by rubbing the gland located on their chest, brown coloured and oozing, against the trunks of trees. To see a short clip of this try this link
The secretion is originally yellow, oily and greasy and to some of us, “yucky.” Their moist dark gland is hairless itself but surrounded by their fur. This scent has attracted the attention of researchers and scientists, who have analysed this koala perfume. According to Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectometry (GC-MS), at least 37 chemicals have been identified with several components remaining mysterious.
The components include the goat smelling, hexionic acid and ascetic acid or vinegar. The funk also includes oily fixatives which are not odiferous but rather only dissipate at extremely high temperatures. This would explain why the odour remains on the trunks even a year after they have been “koala beared!” Further constituents found include volatile fatty acids, aldehydes, ketones, mono and sesquiterpenes, as well as various volatile nitriles and oxines, in addition to benzyl cyanide. For a more complete list look here at this list of Sternal Gland Secretions Chart.
While most people associate their pungent rank smell with Koalas at a zoo, and are likely to be repulsed, other Koalas typically stop briefly to smell the calling cards, that are combined with urine, at the base of the eucalypti trunks. The attendant did say that when she carries the male Koalas during mating season, the scent remains on her t-shirt. She politely described the aroma as a musky strong eucalyptus… but I did see her face light up when she talked about it.