Got Me On My Knees - Laila

Current Fragrance: Laila
Currently Listening: Running on Faith from Eric Clapton, Unplugged

I have been on a rather intense "perfume nostalgia" kick as of late. Particularly I have been drawn to the scents I wore right around the time Hood and I got engaged and married. Laila is one of those scents. Laila, I'm pretty sure, was the scent I wore when we got engaged, but let me back up a bit.

I VIVIDLY remember the day I bought my bottle of Laila. We were working in a newly opened mall outside of Raleigh, NC and my work was 63 steps from Nordstrom. (Think I shopped there a lot?) I had a good working relation ship with one particular fragrance SA (it was fragrances and shoes....still is). I came in to see if there was anything new. I was wearing my black dressed and dress-length jacket that was trimmed in turquoise. (Don't anyone ever tell me that scent and memory aren't closely, CLOSELY linked!) She showed me Laila. Said it was inspired by the wildflowers of Norway. It was extremely pretty and somewhat chilled. Naturally I left with a bottle.

Now onto our engagement. This is how I remember it. It has been over 15 years, and Hood might challenge me on some of the details, but the whole evening was such a fantastic blur. We had talked marriage over, what I'm remembering, was a super fancy early dinner at the Golden Corral. Later that evening, he suggested we go take a walk around campus. I hadn't really spent that much time ON campus, just around it, and thought a walk on campus would be nice. It started dragging me from point to point in a rather rapid pace, and was acting rather odd. It was when we ran into some of his fraternity brothers and he acted REALLY odd that it stuck me, "he's going to propose! OH MY GOD!" And propose he did, in front of the Old Well. Basically THE spot on Carolina's campus.

Over winter break we went back to Carolina's campus and stayed a stone's throw from the Old Well at the Carolin Inn. We took the trip to see the Tar Heel's beat Boston College, visit family, walk around campus, and very importantly eat at Carolina Brewery, Bojangles, and K&W Cafeteria. My time in North Carolina, although brief, was one of the happiest and most care free times in my life and I cherish getting to go back.

Laila is available only online and in Nordstrom stores, so we went back to the Nordstrom store where I purchased my bottle those 15-some years ago. One spritz and a while host of memories came flooding back. It was glorious! White flowers, wildflowers, watermelon and a bit of ice. Gier Ness did a LOVELY job with Lails! It is so innocently alluring. It is somehow simple and complex at the same time. As I'm saving for the big New York City basketball/perfume trip over Spring Break, I did not buy a bottle, but soon my pretties, soon. I did walk out with several self made sample vials to tide me over, and will say that the hand is body cream is exquisite with excellent longevity!

I think I would classify Laila as one of my all times favorites. It's just so lovely, and I have such history to it. It's not generally what I go for, as I tend to lean towards roses and gourmands. Scent is a powerful time machine and this one brings me back to a time and place that I'll always want to stay just a little while longer.

Currently Listening: Layla from Eric Clapton, Unplugged

Atelier Cologne - Perfume Palette

Currently Wearing: Silky Rose by Jovan
Currently Listening: Point of No Return by Expose


I love a good perfume sampler. It's a great way to try out a brand you don't know much about. I impulse bought this on in the line at Sephora for just $18. Atelier Cologne can be a little pricey for me (although there are varying sizes and price points and the do offer a "Discovery Set" on their website for $35), so this is a really good way to see if it's worth it.

Atelier Cologne was started by Christophe Cervasel and Sylvie Ganter. Here's a bit of their story. I find it sweet:

"We met for the first time in New York in 2006 and very quickly we fell in love. We discovered that we share the same passion for the legendary Eau de Cologne and that we were on the same on-going search for a Cologne of character, elegant and fresh at the same time with exceptional long lasting power.

Together, we decided to create the first fragrance house entirely dedicated to cologne. Our dream: to create colognes to be worn as Pure Perfumes. After many years in the making, our dream came true. We gave birth to a new olfactive family: the Colognes Absolues."

I had fun testing this one. I did one fragrance a night for 8 nights. The results are as follows...

Orange Sanguine: It was described as "Bitter and fresh blood orange from Italy with sweet sandalwood." I got a very pure scent of freshly squeezed orange juice with a herbal swizzle stick. The sad thing about citrus scents is that they burn off so quickly. Orange Sanguine was fleeting.

Clementine California: "Sunny composition built around clementine from California: fruity, green, and sweet." My nose can distinguish between many different types of citrus, but different types of oranges and clementines it cannot. To me it was a sweet citrus. Like walking though a citrus grove with a citrus and rosemary lollipop. When the citrus burns off, you are left with a bouquet of bright herbs, that I visualize being tied with raffia.

Vanille Insensée: "An unexpected vanilla from Madagascar, fresh and woody." This is the only one of the lot I have smelled before, so I knew I liked it. It's comforting like a hug. Very inviting yet sophisticated. It's like a milk punch made with good Bourbon and vanilla vodka.

Cafe Tuberosa: "An addictive espresso coffee accord blended with an elegant tuberose from India." I went MAD for this one! It's SO lovely, and unexpectedly elegant! Coffee and tuberose in equal parts. Reminds me of getting all dressed up to go to the bar at the Taj (my favorite bar here in Boston) and having the perfect cup of decaf as a night cap.

Santal Carmin: "Sweet, creamy sandalwood from New Caledonia with a bold accent of saffron." I like it objectively, but its' nothing I would choose to wear. I think the saffron makes the sandalwood smell brighter. Not the sandalwood profile I'm used to. I want to smell this on my husband. He has 2 bottles of fragrance, I'm encroaching on 100.

Oud Saphir: "Dark oud from Malaysia, smoky leather and sparkling bergamot." This one may have changed my mind on our, I found it to be GLORIOUS, I couldn't stop smelling my wrsit. Very "clean". The oud is nice and not heavy-handed. Often-times oud will make my head hurt. I think the bergamot makes it. It is "sparkling". It's such a departure from what I normally wear, but tastes change and evolve. It was a nice surprise. It's the perfect blend of woody, smoky and sparkling. I can't come up with an anaolgy for it.

Mandarine Glaciale: "An icy mandarin spiced by sweet ginger." This one way WAY too fleeting for me. Most likely my least favorite of the lot. I also wanted the ginger to be much more sharp.

Cedre Atlas: "Crisp blue cedar from Morocco enveloped by amber." This one confused me greatly. In my notes, all I have is "why does this smell like my beloved Jo Malone Orange Blossom?"

So that's it. My first real post back! I think I'm going to add bottles of Cafe Tuberosa and Oud Saphir to my ever expanding full bottle wish list. I have an Ormonde Jayne and an Amouage sampler to wade through, but I want to do a few single fragrance entries so I can live with things I little more and weave some better fragrance stories and analogies for you.

Until next time...OOO,

Kathleen

Currently Listening: Bootylicious by Destiny's Child

So It's Been A Minute

Current Fragrance: Atelier Cologne's Vanille Insensee

Currently Listening: Carolina Hurricanes v. Calgary Flames

"I need a hobby." I thought to myself both mentally and physically exhausted from the Fall semester. Yes I have my Sunday evenings in Cambridge, but I needed something to do alone that feeds my soul. All work and no play makes Kathleen a very, VERY dull girl. As I've said before and will say over and over again, "you can't pour from an empty cup." I really do need to practice what I preach.

Over the break I had more me time, and I had special events over the holidays where I would need to "scent" myself that took my back into my collection. Then the day before the husband and I left on vacation I went to both Sephora and Saks and sniffed what I had missed. I ended up with several samples, which I'm sure I'll end up blogging about at some point, and purchased the Atlier Cologne's Perfume Palette for the budget friendly price of $18! I had forgotten how much enjoyed thinking about perfume on my own time, and how happy it made me.

So I thought resurrecting the blog would be a good idea. My goal is to write one entry a week. I think I can hang with that. If there comes a week that I'm too swamped, that's ok...no ones's going to die.

It is also worth noting that I've been on the project of amassing all the perfumes that I wore when Al and I were first married. This'll take awhile, but I will blog about them as I add them to the collection.

Some of my current favorites from Andy Tauer and By Kilian

If you haven't read the ORIGINAL incarnation of NDCN5 (it was a weight loss blog for a bit), I know you must be thinking, "but Kathleen...why perfume?" Simple answer: I love perfume and it makes me really happy. I think perfume is truly a form of art. NOTHING can take me back to time and place like a scent can. Furthermore, perfume (like jewelry) doesn't care what size you are. Any while some of the perfumes I like can be pretty pricey, there are many things in my collection that I truly love that were about 12 bucks.

I remember my perfume journey very well. It started with Luv's Baby soft that I bought with saved  money from my allowance, I remember getting Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth and Exclamation for Christmas when I was seven. Then when I was eight, I saved quite a bit MORE allowance money and bought Elizabeth Taylor's Passion. That's a whole lot of perfume for an eight year old girl. I didn't care. I was "fancy". 

Growing up my mother wore Charlie. (More on that later.) My maternal grandmother wore Emeraude and While Shoulders and my paternal grandmother wore Chanel No. 5 and White Diamonds. See what I mean about fragrance and memory?

I am firmly a child of the 80's. In my mind, the 80's had really great everything. (Or really great everything that the brain of a 2-12 year old take in.) The blog name is an homage to both my mother's signature scent during the 80's and one of my favorite movies growing up, "Short Circuit."

So that's where we are. What you can expect is a lot of love for fragrances I truly love. I see no point in writing about things I don't like. (Unless it's discovery sets, those are never 100%.) Snarky, sass, nostalgia, the opinions of my cats, some giveaways, and maybe by reading you'll learn something about fragrances you didn't already know or find some fragrances you want to try.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you'll be back!

- Kathleen