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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Various and Sundries...

By Tom

After a week of delightfully cool weather here in the City of the Angels, we had a dramatic turnaround: a weekend of highs in the mid to upper nineties. Luckily it's that patented SoCal dry heat, complete with Santa Ana winds, so feared by firefighters yet so beloved by me who doesn't like the heat back East where you sweat through your clothes and over-exert yourself by, say, sitting up. Also on the plus side, my friend the documentary film producer was a judge at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, held every year at the Arclight Cinema in Hollywood. I love the Arclight- it has reserved seating and contains the old Cinerama Dome. It also has AC that could store meat. Which is the perfect place for me to plop myself for the entire weekend of watching Indie Indian Films. Not to mention look at some seriously cute Indian guys. Note to self, go on a date, and not just with Sue.

In any case, the Bigarade Concentree indeed was on the floor of the car and did not fall out of my pocket onto Wilshire Boulevard when I got it from Barneys last week. The Malle line is very much growing on me- I am not quite sure yet that Musc Ravageur is going to be a full bottle for me- it seems one that I adore the beginning of but don't much want to leave the house smelling of the drydown. Not that it's not a fragrance that I have a lot of respect for, I find myself reacting the same way to Tubereuse Criminelle. Bigarade Concentree starts off with the pungency of bitter orange rind and cumin and I swear a touch of "new Converse All-Stars", weighty and in-your-face dramatic. It settles down as it wears and the cedar comes out to play. I am really liking it except for one thing: like most citruses, it's not very long lasting. I am on the fence with this one; don't know if this is FBW or if I will put that energy into getting a full bottle of Mandarine Mandarin, even if Mssr Turin proclaimed that it was "not particularly wearable" (harrumph!)

And onto The Guide...

I did get my copy this weekend, but only skimmed parts of it, since I was running off to Hollywood to moon over younger men, acidly judge the artistic endeavors of people with far more get-up-and-go than I, suck up free AC and two buck Chuck and generally waste some space (I know, you're thinking "how does he remain single?"). I will have to read more of it of course. I did chortle at several of the ones that I read even if I disagreed with it, but as I skimmed more I started to wonder if there was going to be an over-sustained level of snark going on here. Now I fully realise that I am in no way not guilty of being snarky myself; I snark therefore I am should be a family motto. But too much of a good thing can turn one from Oscar Wilde into David Spade. I'm hoping as I read more that sense of foreboding will dissipate...

Oh and one last tidbit. I wrote to the good people at Lostmarc'h to kvell over Lann-Ael, asking if there was a place in the US that carried the line. I was in no way hoping that they would send me a full bottle of Lann-Ael gift box full of full bottles to the shipping address included in the email (which IS still valid...). Failing that, they did email me back that the line will be coming to LuckyScent in late May or Early June. I can use my decant of that with abandon.

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24 Comments:

Blogger Kelley said...

Tom, I have had a full bottle of BC for a couple of years. Why do I feel so naughty saying Bigarade out loud? I am with you in that it is gone in 60 seconds. I also love the rose note that I pick out between the citrus and cumin. It's a fantastic scent but I am thinking it's so short-lived on my skin that I would need gallons to get through the day! I can see hooking up a shower head in the Malle fragrance booth at Barney's and soaking myself to the skin with BC. I don't think it would ever be too much, even having bathed in it. I do love it though!

11:01 PM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

Kelley-

Long time no hear from! How are?

BG isn't quite gone that quick on me but it doesn't linger near to long enough for my tastes, drat it.

I'm all for that shower head!

11:07 PM EDT  
Blogger Kelley said...

Tom, I moved three weeks ago...trying to build a house...having a major art exhibit this weekend with 38 pieces! Enough said.

11:50 PM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

Wow! God for you!

Send pix. Preferably in construction worker drag.

Why do I feel like I should have been wearing a muu-muu when I typed that?

12:02 AM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom, take a skin graft from me--Bigarade Concentree stays on me for days. Amazing to me, too.
Last December I visited friends in LA and we went to the Arclight and I could not believe how amazing it was! Even if I did have to wear my Motorcycle Jacket to keep warm. It caused some misunderstanding, but the movies were incredible on that huge screen!

12:08 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

ooh! You must have been in the Dome! I hate to admit it but the Dome cured me of sitting in the front row- I saw "Saving Tess" there before the Arclight grew up around it and frankly wall-to-wall Nic Cage was a bit too much.

Haven't you read The Guide? There is nothing to skin chemistry at all. Either you're hallucinating that you're smelling it or.. well, according to The Guide there is no "or"

I guess one of us needs to seek help.

12:45 AM EDT  
Blogger Flora said...

Tom, I love the idea of an Indian film festival! Not to mention all those good-looking Indian men....yeah, I need to go on a date too! :-D

I really want to try more Malles, so far I love the three I have tried samples of (Carnal Flower, En Passant, Une Fleur de Cassie) and I really want to try Une Rose and the Bigardade, and heck, ALL of them!

1:01 AM EDT  
Blogger chayaruchama said...

QC- just stand under my nose, honey.
That'll make me swoon...

Hey, Love-Machine [ aka Tom } !
You know how to have a goood time, my boy.
We should definitely hook up....

6:41 AM EDT  
Blogger lilybp said...

Hi Tom! I love most of the Malles, but BC is one (really the only one) I CANNOT wear; with my (often) citrus-enhancing skin, I smell like a giant orange! It is probably the only scent I have worn to which Mr. Lily reacted, "TOO strong!" OTOH, he loves MR on me.
Speaking as one bitch (I won't presume "to another"), I do find the snark level of the Guide too high (particularly when comparted to the amount of information); for me, it passes from clever into wearing (well beyond David Spade:)

7:16 AM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Guilty secret: I'm enjoying & yes, looking forward to the Guide snark bits. I know, I suck. I'm finding parts of the book useful, esp discussion of chemistry & associated notes. But since we disagree on so many 'fumes it's a bit useless to me as inspiration to try new things. What it's perfect for: bedtime reading. Put on a scent I'm craving, settle in, peruse a few pages, drift off. Perhaps why the snark level doesn't offend me ... I only read a few reviews in any one sitting.

8:18 AM EDT  
Blogger elle said...

I adore BC. My skin seems to amplify all the cumin in it and it is one of my favorite summer scents. Definitely FBW for me. Much, much prefer it to CB, which simply isn't interesting enough on my skin.

8:22 AM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like BC alot on one test. (Got a tester last year but the UK summer was so bad I felt no need of a scent to cut the heat so haven't tried it again.) Finaly got my copy of the Guide yesterday and have duly flipped through a few reviews. I have a high snark threshold and anyway we all knew that was how LT wrote many reviews so I'm pretty unfazed by the Guide's snark level. It only starts to annoy me a little when I could really have done with proper information about why a scent is so cr*p. I hope you enjoy reading it anyway, Tom! Nicola

8:43 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

donna-

I like Carnal Flower but went with my friend who has the shower application method Kelley spoke of. And then she added the body cream. Oy. It was like being beaten to death with tuberose...

11:05 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

chaya-

I agree! We should!

All those tiresome miles between the East and West coast.. grr...

11:07 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

lily-

I am fully behind my bitch-hood. Wear it like a mantle, proudly!

I've been reading in small doses and that seems to help. I am in awe over his ability to tell us exactly what molecule in there causes something to smell of this or that. Just wish he's can some of the one-liners and use his incredible nose and judicious wit to tell us WHY something sucks and not just that it does.

11:10 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

divalano-

you pretty much said it; that's exactly how I'm reading it!

11:11 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

elle-

Oh I wish it did that on me.

Wait- didn't you hear? There is no such thing as skin chemistry!

11:14 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

Nicola-

I think I will enjoy it, in small doses..

11:14 AM EDT  
Blogger Ducks said...

Great! I'm so glad Lann-Ael is coming to Luckyscent.

Tom, your Oscar Wilde/David Spade comment made me shoot soda water from my nostrils...at work! Gee, thanks! :)

11:24 AM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom, OMG! SERIOUSLY... I'm so sorry to do this but I HAVE to post a snipit of my review of Bigarade Concentree from basenotes just so you'll believe me:

And I quote, myself, hahaha, "And, call me crazy if you wish, but I also get, very clearly, the smell of the white rubber in tennis balls and/or the sour smell of new sneakers." FUNNY!!! HAHAHAHA... I'm 'nthny' there if you want to read the rest of it... :) We seem to smell this one similarly :D BTW, I'm totally rediscovering Declaration this week. I'm in head over heals love with it, just mentioning because of the cuminy citrus link/Ellena link.

See ya 'round!
Anthony :)

11:53 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

ducks-

My work here is done...

:-)

12:46 PM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

Anthony-

What can I say? Great minds think alike- and I swear it's in there- I just bought a new pair of sneakers and checked!

now I am going to have to go and smell Daclaration..

12:48 PM EDT  
Blogger marchlion said...

Hey, so great about the Lostmarc'h! Although what I'm always lost about is where that apostrophe goes... you crack me up. I would love to sit around and get sloshed on plonk with you and dip into The Guide.

3:40 PM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

march (or perhaps now marc'h?)

I would like that too! And you call it plonk too?

Those lostmarc'c names are a pain- I always have to look them up. I end up not remembering what they are? Din Dan? Din Dins? Knick Knac'K?

Makes for interesting googling..

9:17 PM EDT  

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