Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose: Bond No. 9's Andy Warhol Union Square & High Line

*Currently Listening: Ladies of Cambridge by Vampire Weekend
*Current Fragrance: Gris Clair by Serge Lutens

Before I get going, don't forget to enter the Florida Perfumed Primary Project / Harry Potter Trivia / Nail Polish Giveaway! (Only 5 days left!)

Bond No. 9 Flagship Store

Yesterday I felt particularly yucky: I woke up feeling like someone slipped razor blades in my throat and then backed over me with a MAC truck. Al promised me I didn't have a fever, although I felt as though was going to sweat out every last ounce of fluid in my body. (A day of  lounging around and finally opening some windows to get some cool air in the apartment - the heat in my apartment can sometimes be just too much - had me feeling better by the time I was ready to go to bed.) So, it's easy to understand that I wasn't feeling particularly adventurous (ok, read LOUD and LARGE) in my fragrance choices yesterday, so I decided to dig into my bag of Bond No. 9 samples that I amassed during my trip to their flagship store last month & found some light florals to try.

For more about Bond No. 9, click here. Long story short - they're fragrances based on NYC neighborhoods. Which I think, is a totally fun idea. (I mean, imagine in Boston had a 1256 Boylston Line - if I've got the address right, it's a pretty funny place for a headquarters - I wonder what the fragrance for my neighborhood would smell like...?)

My testing yesterday went two very distinct ways, one I loved...one I did not. First the one I loved....

Andy Warhol Union Square

The Bond website lists the notes in Andy Warhol Union Square as lily of the valley, green stem, blue freesia, white birchwood, amber and musk. I found AWUS to be lovely, but not earth shattering. I got lots of lily of the valley on top mixed with what my nose perceived to be as peach. As it dried down and wore on, I got freesia. I don't know the difference between freesias, so I guess it was blue... It stayed on my skin for quite some time - my nose could pick it up distinctly after four hours. I was surprised for it being such a light fragrance. I never got the amber and the musk in a heavy way. Given the way I felt yesterday, I was totally OK with this. I found the scent to be perfectly lovely. AWUS actually reminds me of my Mom a lot.  I think she'd like it and I'm going to mail her the remainder of the sample.

Now, High Line - that's another story....

High Line (Wait, why am I captioning this? Y'all Can read...anyway...)

I had high hopes for High Line. The site lists the notes as bergamot, purple love grass, Indian rhubarb, red leaf roses, tulips, grape hyacinth & burr oak. I love me some rhubarb, so this really peaked my interest. At first spritz, I was in love; it smelled of tulips and sweet tarts! Which if you know me and my love of sweet tarts, this is a gourmand note I GLADLY welcome! (Well, that and I'm a bit of a freak...) Then the fragrance started to go bad on me. After the first few sniffs it gave me a horrible head ache. GRRRR!  Once it started to dry down, I'd go back and forth..."||:Love it, hate it:||" (Ummm, I'm using musical notation in my typing...sorry...it makes sense to me!) Once I got past that stage it started to smell like plastic tulips and plastic grass. NOT for me!

So, you win some and you lose some. Bond No. 9 has a large line; I know I already LOVE Nuits de NoHo and Chinatown. Sometimes Bond No. 9 gets a bad wrap; and I'm trying to not read too many other reviews, as I want to be as objective as possible, I've got a LARGE bag of samples to work through.

If you'd like to try out the remainder of the High Line sample, let me know & I'll mail it to you. The Andy Warhol Union Square will be on its way to my Mom tomorrow.

*Currently Listening: "OK, It's Alright With Me" by Eric Hutchinson

**Perfume bottle images from bondno9.com - the photo of the storefront is my own.