Fragrance Antropology & A Smattering of Emotional Remembrances

*Currently Listening: "White Blank Page" by Mumford & Sons
*Current Fragrance: "Cleopatra" by Tocca

I WAS going to do a review of the Ineke gift set that "D.F." gifted me for Christmas, but it's REALLY cold in my apartment, and I just wanted to write about something that was warm, fuzzy and nostalgic - so I'm switching up my weekly plan for NDC#5. (Yes, there's a "weekly plan"! I'm a Virgo. I get all excited about lists...)

I have sang By Kilian's "Liaisons Dangereuses" praises SEVERAL times. I pretty convinced I'm having a not so secret love affair with it at this point. It's one of those fragrances that simultaneously evokes feelings of sexiness, comfort and nostalgia; which for me is no easy feat! I'm a sucker for so many of the notes used in this fragrance: coconut (esp. when it's not the "Pina Colada" dumped over my head type), plum, blackcurrant, rose (esp. when it goes a bit "jammier"), & ambrette. I'm 99% sure that this is going to be my purchase when I FINALLY get to visit Aedes de Venustas later this month. Sure there are places in Boston where I could pick it up, but I've been waiting for make a trip to Aedes for about 8 years, so I want to make my first in person purchase very special.

"Liaisons Dangereuses" was supposed to be my New Year's Eve Fragrance, (complete with feather eyelashes) but I was NOT feeling up to going out, so we celebrated in. (In, in SETX - watching my father's PRICELESS facial reactions to Lady GaGa.)

From Halloween being a "Red Wing Blackbird" & they're dying to make another outing.

The best Champagne we could find in a 3 town radius in my Mom's GORGEOUS crystal.

Since I didn't get to wear it out on NYE, I decided I needed to wear "Liaisons Dangereuses" to the grocery store (complete w/ red lips and red suede ballet flats - COMPLETELY necessary!) with my Mom. Upon smelling my perfume my mom exclaimed, "Oooh! You smell just like MY grandmother smelled! She would have worn something like that!" I mean, I was already in love with the perfume, but that just sent me over the love-o-meter edge! For as long as I can remember, my Mom and Grandmother would both tell me how much I am like my Great Grandmother: her love of fresh flowers, her independent streak, her need to always be consumed with some sort of project, her connection to the spiritual, her little fur pill box hat (yes, I want to be the little old lady sitting at the bar drinking a glass of champagne wearing a fur and ALL of her jewelry). . .

I've always felt a very strong kinship to my Great Grandmother, having never know her. She passed away when my Mom was in her early 20's. Having grown up at times feeling SO different from either side of my family, it was insanely comforting to know that there was someone, witch whom you shared DNA with, was so much like I am.

Of all my material possessions, this set of jewelry is my most treasured...

They belonged to my Great Grandma, and I have worn them once, for my wedding. I have very distinct memories of sitting at my Grandma Byrd's vanity, digging in her blue multi-tiered jewelry box and trying things on. This jewelry set was my absolute favorite!! I loved the insane chic-ness of the grey and white crystals in a floral-esque pattern. (I actually picked my wedding dress to go with the jewelry.) I would ask my Grandma on countless occasions, "Please let me have this jewelry Grandma!" Her response was always the same. "I will, Kathleen. When it's time."

The last Christmas my Grandmother was alive, she quietly pulled me into her bedroom, opened the top middle drawer to her vanity (which my little sister now uses), and pulled out the jewelry, simply wrapped in white tissue paper, handed it to me, as she smiled and said, "It's time." I thought it was "time" because I was 19 at the time, and a freshman in college. Little did I know it was "time" because that was the last Christmas we would have together as she passed away the next month. I am 100% that she understood on some level that her time was short and there were things that needed to be done. It's such a treasured moment in my memory. It wasn't around  the rest of my family, just myself, my Grandmother and somewhere my Great Grandmother sharing a beautiful and beloved treasure and moment.

Time to dry my tears and go back to musing about perfume. (Mom, I'm sure you are reading this at work, so...sorry for making you cry too!)

With my Mom telling me how much "Liaisons Dangereuses" smelled like my Great Grandmother, I can't help but wonder; what perfume might she HAVE worn? There's really no one left on that side of the family to ask. My Mom doesn't remember, so I'm positive that her brother wouldn't. My Grandma and Grandpa, along with my two Great Aunt's have all passed away as well. So I guess it's time for a little Fragrance Anthropology. Admittedly I know very little about vintage perfumes. I DO know, if it's a smell that my mother would have remembered her wearing, it would have been between 1950 and 1972. (I'll narrow it down to 1955-1965.) Also, something that would have been mass distributed and could have been available in Port Arthur, TX at the time.  Given the  notes for "Liaisons Dangereuses" I know what I'm looking for with that, but how would I find what was available at the time? To my perfumistas out there - any great thoughts as to where I could start looking to figure this out? Has anyone else out there reading ever gone on an anthropological perfume quest?

*Currently Listening: "Mad World" by Gary Jules

Live From My Couch. (Happiness & Light Giveaway Winners.)

*Currently Listening: The Panel on "Real Time with Bill Maher"
*Current Fragrance: "Pure Grace" by Philosophy

Here at No Disassemble Charlie No. 5 we're pretty low tech. I mean, I've got two cats as my assistants. Technology is pretty hard to deal with when you're running an operation with 10 "hands" and only two opposable thumbs. While I'm sure other perfume blogs have nice selection software to choose winners of their contests at random, I (for this one, the first one if you'll remember, was a hat) have a pot with ripped up pieces of paper with names handwritten on them.

Pot. While watching Bill Maher on tv, who likes pot.

I find using this particular pot for this drawing was quite appropriate for this draw since it was a wedding gift my Maid of Honor's mother. I love this pot! "The Bell Pepper" as we SO cleverly call it. It has seen a great deal of canned veggies, soups and pasta sauce over the past 9 and 1/3 years.

Now, without further delay....the winner of the 4ml deluxe sample of Escada's "Taj Sunset" -

 

And now the winner of  a sample vile of Badgley Mischka -

 

Congrats Michelle and Reba! Please email me at dscharlieno5@gmail.com or text me (since you both may have my phone #) your address so I can get your perfume!

To everyone who entered, thanks for entering; and thank you ALWAYS for reading, as well as for your support and encouragement! No Disassemble Charlie No. 5 has been going on for a little over a month now, and it sure has been a blast!

I'll be back Monday with a review of Ineke's Deluxe Sample Collection Vol. 4.

The rockin' Friday night of a perfume blogger.

*Currently Listening: Still the Panel on "Real Time with Bill Maher"

Sorry Florida! (Perfumed Primary Project Update)

*Currently Listening: Surgeons bickering on last night's Grey's Anatomy
*Current Perfume: Nothing yet, it's my day off...I can leisurely make me choice! (well, I am teaching later...)

Thanks to my husband for after reading about the Perfumed Primary Project, let me know "umm, you missed Florida."

I have nothing against Florida! I love Disney World, and orange juice, and really want to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! If I was going to intentionally leave a state out, I'd go out of my way to have some fun at the state's expense...trust me!

For the record, Florida's primary is on January 31st with the state flowering being the Orange Blossom.

I'll update the list on the original entry as soon as I'm done with this entry.

I'd have a glass of orange juice to apologize, but I have none. :-(  oooh...a mimosa sounds good right about now.

*Currently Listening: Surgeons STILL bickering on last night's Grey's Anatomy

The Perfumed Primary Project

*Currently Listening: Bill Evans - "Pavane"
*Current Perfume: Ineke's "After My Own Heart"

I wonder what fragranced our forefathers?

Hmmm...how to start this? I really have no vested interest in the G.O.P. Primary; as I am very much NOT a Republican. I'm...well...I'd brand myself as a Liberal Libertarian, but that's not the point. This isn't really about politics though, it's about perfume, and once I saw this tweet from the Fifi Awards, my brain got to working.

I had already picked my Scent of the Day, but knew I would be showering before heading out to a work meeting and though to myself, "do I have anything in the apartment that has lilac in it? YES! Yes, I do," and I put on some of Ineke's "After My Own Heart before heading to my work meeting. This got me to thinking: wouldn't it be a fun little project, that on every day there is a primary, to wear a fragrance that has some element of the state's flower in it? With that, the Perfumed Primary Project was born. What a fun and fragranced way to celebrate this part of the political process in my own way, and perhaps keep me from getting way too cynical about the whole thing. (My huband's degree is in Political Science, and I DO have an interest in the political process. Plus, I think Presidential Speech Writer has to be right up the with Crayola Color Namer as COOLEST JOB IN THE WORLD.)

I can already see a few snarls that I'm going to have to navigate.....

1) Not going broke! I mean, there are 50 states...  I'm going to try my best to utilize perfumes I already own, samples I can get for free or on the cheap, and in a REAL PINCH, a spritz on the day at a perfume counter of the needed fragrance.

2) What about the days like Super Tuesday? It's ridiculous to try to wear ten different fragrances during one day. I'll try my best to combine states (notes) into a few frangrances, and hope that some of the states have overlapping state flowers.

3) On the days of primaries for states I've lived in and currently live in - so Texas, North Carolina, and Massachusets - those states will take precident of the other. I'm sure I can find a bluebonnet, a dogwood & a mayflower frangrance somewhere. (This also takes care of the Super Tuesday problem with MA.)

4) To not let this completely take over my life, because it easily could. I know it will be a good bit of the content for NDC#5 between now and June 26. Sometime during the last two weeks of the month prior, I'll set up a day to figure out and go about procuring the scents for the following month. I've got the rest of this month figured out, so that's good.

5) What ever am I going to do about Iowa, since I missed it?

6) What do I do if there is a single primary on a day and I just kind find anything with that flower/botanical?

I'm sure I can figure this all out, this is going to be an adventure!

Here's the list of primaries with the state's corresponding state flower:

January 3 - Iowa: Wild Prairie Rose

January 10 - New Hampshire: Lilac

January 21 - South Carolina: Yellow Jessamine

January 31 - Florida: Orange Blossom

February 4 - Nevada: Sagebrush

February 4-11: Maine - White Pine Cone & Tassell

February 7 -  Colorado: Rocky Mountain Columbine
Minnesota: Pink & White Lady's Slipper
Missouri: Hawthorn

February 28 - Arizona: Saguaro Cactus Blossom
Michigan: Apple Blossom

March 6 - Alaska: Forget Me Not
Georgia: Cherokee Rose
Idaho: Syringa
Massachusetts: Mayflower
North Dakota: Wild Prairie Rose
Ohio: Scarlet Carnation
Oklahoma: Mistletoe
Tennessee: Iris
Vermont: Red Clover
Virginia: American Dogwood

March 6-10 - Wyoming: Indian Paintbrush

March 10 - Kansas: Sunflower
U.S. Virgin Islands: Do territories have a "Territory Flower"? Time to find out!

March 13 - Alabama: Camellia
Hawaii: Hibiscus
Mississippi: Magnolia

March 20 - Illinois: Purple Violet

March 24 - Louisiana: Magnolia

April 3 - District of Colombia: ????
Maryland: Black Eyed Susan
Texas: Bluebonnet
Wisconsin: Wood Violet

April 24 - Connecticut: Mountain Laurel
Delaware: Peach Blossom
New York: Rose
Pennsylvania: Mountain Laurel
Rhode Island: Violet

May 8 - Indiana: Peony
North Carolina: American Dogwood
West Virginia: Rhododendron

May 15 - Nebraska: Goldenrod
Oregon: Oregon Grape

May 22 - Arkansas: Apple Blossom
Kentucky: Goldenrod

June 5 - California: California Poppy
Montana: Bitterroot
New Jersey: Violet
New Mexico: Yucca Flower
South Dakota: Wild Prairie Rose

June 26 - Utah: Sego Lily

Thanks to 2012presidentialelectionnews.com and 50states.com for the data!

*Currently Listening: Michael Jackson - "Man in the Mirror"

Life Is A Highway (My Husband's 10 Day Scent Deciding Journey)

*Currently Listening: "I'm Making Eyes at You" by Black Kids
*Current Perfume: "Womanity" by Thierry Mugler

I outlined in my earlier entry "Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a Man, Smell Like a Man (?)" that my husband owns one bottle of fragrance, which he pulls out for special occasions; Hanae Mori HM.
I sort of took it on as a little mini personal mission of mine to find him a daytime signature scent, and for Christmas gifted him 10 sample vials that I think he would enjoy to try and pick a signature daytime scent. Whichever scent he decides upon, I'll buy him the full bottle for Valentines Day.

Right now he's on day two of this process. We traveled so much during the holidays and the bag of samples didn't get brought: plus looking for a signature scent, don't you want to be in your element, doing you daily thing?

The list of scents, in the order he plans on trying them are as follows:

Oh yeah, and Al - PLEASE don't click on the links because then you'll see how much they are, and I don't want that influencing your decision, I just want readers to be able to easily read about each fragrance

1) LUSH's "Dirty" (This was yesterday's scent. It smelled way too clean and metallic on Al, smells better on me actually and I'll spritz it on me sometimes during work.)

2) LUSH's "Breath of God" (Today's fragrance. I was still fast asleep when he left the house this morning, I'm curious to get a whiff of it this evening on him.)

3) Hermès' "Eau D'Orange Verte"


4) Diptyque "Eau Duelle"


5) Diptyque "L'eu des Hesperides"

6) L'Artisan Parfumer - "Mandarine"


7) L'Artisan Parfumer - "Poivre Piquant"


8) Edition de Parfums Frederic Malle - "Bigarade Concentree"


9) Edition de Parfums Frederic Malle - "Geranium Pour Monsieur"


10) Edition de Parfums Frederic Malle - "Musc Ravageur"


By the 20th he should be all the way through testing them. Pretty sure he doesn't want to think of fragrance choosing on the weekends. I'm very curious as to what he has to say about them all and will be updating some of his thoughts through my Twitter (@klhood123). Al's not nearly as effusive as I am, which I'm sure will actually yield some awesomely dry yet entertaining observations.

Also, don't forget to go to the entry "Happiness & Light" (Escada's Sexy Graffiti) and sign up for an AWESOME double draw giveaway. Four more days to enter!


*Currently Listening: "If You Don't Want Me to (The Freeze)" by Ronnie Milsap (which is mildly embarrassing, my iPhone on iTunes shuffle; but I find this song full of nostalgic fun!)

To All The [Ficticious] Men I've Loved Before...

....aka the make-believe "man candy" entry

*Currently Listening: "So Dance Samba" by Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto
*Current Fragrance: "Field Notes From Paris" by Ineke

I feel that this entry, should come with three disclaimers: 1) I know that most of the NDC#5 entries have been these life/memory fueled epics. I really do love writing them, although they do take a long time to write and I imagine a long time to read as well. I am trying to, in the near future, write more short perfume reviews; reviews of things coming out completely new to the market and some new to me (or I have had them for awhile, but feel as though they should be reviewed). 2) Of the fragrances I'm about to link with these "men" I'm about to wax poetic about, I have not ever smelled any of them...it's purely idea based. I mean, I've never MET Don Draper, and I never will (well, in my dream...but that's....you know.... ;-) ), because the man's not real! So, I feel like it's TOTALLY o.k. to match scents I have never smelled with characters I'll never meet. 3) Back to Don Draper...I really think this entire entry was a ploy that I created in my own head to have a legitimate reason to post this video...

Don Draper is the current fictitious love of my life. Yes...he's a Cad (yeah, so much so that it gets a capital "C'), a ginormous Cad, a f'ing ginormous Cad, but an inextricably sexy f'ing ginormous Cad! He's one of those "men want to be him, women want to be with him" characters. I'm a little obsessed with "Mad Men", I love the idea of New York in the early 1960's where old world style and glamour are still holding to outward appearances, while powerful zeitgeists like the Civil Right Movement and the Sexual Revolution were taking hold in minds, news, politics, sentiments and bedrooms. Plus, men still wore fedoras. All men look just a little bit sexier sporting a fedora. JFK, I love you...but did have REALLY have to take the Oath of Office without your top-hat on?!??!?! Men's millinery has never been the same; well, sort of.

Don Draper

I think Don Draper would smell like leather and honey. Pretty much the two sexiest scents I could conjure in my mind for a man to smell like. My mind goes to all sorts of place I should just not type about because it's way TMI, and well...I'm pretty sure my Mom is going to read this! (On a women for the record, it's jasmine & unsweetened blackberry jam), But you see, Don drinks and smokes too much to smell just like honey and leather...so I've decided to throw in scotch and tobacco. After searching through several fragrances, I've decided that Don Draper should wear either (please make sure you click on all the links for full fragrance descriptions) Eau d'Italie's Bois d'Ombrie or Odori's Tabacco.

Hawkeye Pierce

I like a funny man. (A little "real life" interjection - I think one of the things that makes mine Al's relationship special and has helped us through some really touch spots, is our use of completely off the wall humor.) I think what I find so attractive about Hawkeye Pierce is his ability that in the shit-tastic situation of being stationed with a MASH unit in South Korea, he was able to broach most situations with humor, whit and levity. Not to mention his smile and laugh we so infectious and endearing, they seam to be able to make the sun come out on the cloudiest of days.

Coupling the sunny (yet at times sardonic - just the way I love it) humor with the necessary cleanliness of surgery, I imagine him to smell like something very clean, fresh and uplifting - I'm going to go with fresh mint and basil. Hawkeye Pierce should stash a bottle of L'Artisan Parfumeur's L'eau de L'artisan or Annick Goutal's Eau du Sud in his bunker.

Aleksander Petrovsky

I was going to go with Mr. Big from "Sex and the City", but even though he and Carrie ended up together and made two visually stunning yet mediocre (and I LOVED THEM BOTH) movie's once the t.v. series ended, I'm still pretty pissed at him for all the s@$t he put Carrie though. (Yes, I understand it's not real life :-) and also must admit that he was one INSANELY handsome man.) I'm going to have to go with Aleksander Petrovsky for my "Sex and the City" love. I'm sure there are those of you out there who are going to yell, "But what about Aiden!?!?!" What about Aiden? I'm pretty sure he smelled like sawdust and sweat, and that's just not my thing!

Plus, Mikhail Baryshnikov was my first crush. I feel in love with him watching the PBS broadcast of "The Nutcracker" when I was a young girl.

Back to Aleksander Petrovsky. I can never imagine him slathered in anything that would be traditionally marketed as "manly" as his character came across as "I'm way too much of a euro-art-old-world-stud" to give a damn about that kind of thing! Actually, I don't imagine him to actually wear a fragrance, but just ooze the smell of dark Russian tea sweetened with cherries, like he drank on his first way way way late night date with Carrie. If I went with that, I'd have to leave him out of this post, and I just can't do that; so I came up with BLOOD Concept's B and Van Cleef & Arpels' Midnight in Paris.


Funny is sexy, but so is smart. As much as I'm COMPLETELY objectifying these fictitious men, I'd like to be able to have a conversation with them. There are two kinds of sexy smart 1) I have no idea I'm attractive because I keep my head in a book and 2) The (LMFAO smart) I'm sexy and I know it, so I'll use it as ammunition smart.

Type 1: Dr. Spencer Reid

I love "Criminal Minds" and I'm pretty sure I could write an entry like this about the entire cast. (Except for Elle Greenway. Something about her just bugs me!) I'd also point out that I spent a good chunk of every episode wanting to yell the following at Hotch, "God Lord, would you just get rip-roaring drunk and sleep with a hooker or something so you wouldn't be so damned uptight!?" But I digress...Reid is so adorkily-handsome-hot, and he completely has no idea off it. His light hearted innocence in social situations is wonderfully foiled by his dealings with things that are exceedingly dark and sinister for his job.

I feel like he would wear scents that were light and innocent. I mean, who wants to wear oud while hunting down serial killers? The serial killer's wearing this anyway! (And that wold be TOTALLY AWESOME!)  I'd imagine the young brainiac to wear scents containing light and innocent things like grapefruit and lavender, along the lines of Diptyque's L'eau de L'eau and Lostmarch's L'eau de l'Hermine (ok, that one makes me giggle for the naming & further dealing with fictitious smarty-pants character - granted the spelling is different, but still! Perhaps I should sneak a Harry Potter reference into every NDC#5 entry)

Type 2: Josh Lyman

"The West Wing's" Josh Lyman has what I like to call "smart white boy swagger". He's acutely aware of the fact that the ladies find him lovely and he works it to his advantage and sometime to his detriment. (Good God, I miss "The West Wing"!) The way he smashes his political adversaries (and often loved ones) with his viciously awesome Sorkin-ite words, which make me go week in the knees, and makes him hotter than the tad too soft spoken Sam Seaborn. Yet underneath his swagger is a very sweet tenderness that helps to really make him attractive. In picking out fragrances for him, I wanted a dichotomy in notes that both complimented and contrasted - I went with lime and cedar. Thus yielding Nobile 1942's Estroverso & Caron's Yuzu Man.

I did lie when I said that I hadn't smelled any of these fragrances. I HAVE smelled By Kilian's Pure Oud, which is EXACTLY what I think a serial killer would smell like. They've gotta lure you in, you know! It would lure me in.... I also think this might be Voldemort's signature scent!

In closing, just so I don't come off as COMPLETELY sexist, two fictitious and one real lovely ladies who I find to be jasmine & unsweetened blackberry jam worthy!

Joan Holloway

Dr. Addison Forbes Montomery

Rachel Maddow

*Currently Listening: "Sway" by Rosemary Clooney

Happiness & Light (Escada's Sexy Graffiti)

*Currently Listening: "Time" by Ben Folds
*Current Fragrance: Escada's Sexy Graffiti 2011

I'd like to think of myself like a cat. I've had several different lives, but I'm not up to nine yet, so I guess I'm not close to going to that Big Litter Box in the Sky. They are as follows: 1) B.N.C. "Before North Carolina, 2) L.N.C. "Lovely North Carolina", 3) B.T.T. "Back to Texas", & 4) S.U.T.B. "Shipped Up to Boston". This entry focuses on Life #2 "Lovely North Carolina"; hence the Ben Folds... (I think of this time in my life...it totally gets this theme song...)

So, I sort of "ran away from home" to live in North Carolina. But truthfully for as stressful as it was on all parties involved it was THE biggest and THE smartest decision I made in my life. It truly changed the trajectory of my life. Had I not slipped the bonds of SETX in the middle of the night (only to return two years later with my tail semi-tucked between my legs to finish my undergrad and get my Master's - but I'm sure there's a few fragrances that can spawn that entry), my relationship with my husband would have never progressed to the point to where he actually became my husband, and I would have most likely stayed in SETX, and gotten a job as a band director, and been miserable with myself as well as making my students and everyone around me miserable. (I feel that I should clarify; I have MANY dear friends who are band director's and do a FANTASTIC job at it. I know myself too well to know that that is NOT me. One on one, in the private lesson setting, I'm outstanding. Full band environment....NO!)

I always regard my time in North Carolina with a sense of wonder. It was my first REAL taste of completely being my own person. I remember feeling so free and so happy. Life was very carefree. I moved up there with a suitcase and a duffel bag in early January, got a job, an apartment, a cat, rented furniture (yes, in that order), Al and I got engaged in late March/early April and were married in August. This all started happening pretty much exactly ten years ago.

After a brief stint working for the Sierra Club, then selling jewelry at Sears, my job settled as being the person who reconciled the same Sears store's funds on a daily basis. It was 56 steps from my office to the Norsdstrom in the same mall. (And just a quick right once you got in the door to the store's fragrance counter, which was my break-time happy place.)

My now husband had figured out that I was a little fragrance obsessed, and my wedding gift was a bottle of Escada's Sexy Graffiti, along with this beautiful atomizer.

Aren't I pretty?

Sexy Graffiti celebrated Escada's 10th Anniversary of their seasonal perfumes. Each summer, I sniff their summer offering, sometimes buying it, but it's never quite "right". To me Sexy Graffiti smells like happiness and light. My skin and my nose really likes raspberries, and they pop on me in Sexy Graffiti. Over the years, the bottle was emptied as much as I rationed it out, Al would try to recreate the fragrance for me through several modes, but while INCREDIBLY sweet, it wasn't the same. I think the saddest was during one of our many moves from apartment to apartment (we're on apartment 5 of our marriage), the original bottle was lost.

Fast forward to this past Christmas. Al and I exchanged gifts early on Christmas Eve morning. He had my gifts in an order to open up. I should point out now, that I knew I was getting something that I hadn't asked for. (I know most of you are thinking, "oh, that's sweet!" I should point out, that for some reason, I'm not a fan of surprises. Want to make me cross with you? Come up to me and say, "I've got a surprise for you!!" I. Just. Don't. Like. It.!) However, my husband may have excluded himself from my I Hate Surprises Land with this gift....

I opening it up, and was SO excited I hugged the box and cried. SERIOUSLY, yes...hugged the box and cried! While trying to find me a bottle of the 2002 Sexy Graffiti, he came across the fact that it had be re-released in 2011. Although there have been a few tweaks in the 2011 version, the blueberry and musk of the original are missing, it STILL smells like happiness and light to me. My skin pops the raspberry and lily of the valley. Granted there's always a similarity in all of Escada's summer releases, but this one is just special to me, proving further the strong emotional power of fragrance. None of the other full bottles I own are really close to Sexy Graffiti or any "red fruity floral fragrances" for that matter, and I don't really go looking for anything close to it. This one's special to me for very special reasons, it gets its' own little beloved place in my perfume world; and the husband gets promoted to Rock Star Status for finding this one for me! (For that, he gets a "rock star" version of our song!)

Since I smell and feel like happiness and light, it's time for a giveaway! Up for grabs a 4ml deluxe sample of Escada's Taj Sunset (first draw) and a sample vile of Badgley Mischka (second draw). I wanted to keep with the wedding/bridal theme, and digging through my sample vial's and couldn't find anything Vera Wang.

Sign up for the giveaway, you know you want to win one of us! (Disclosure - we were acquired as samples with Sephora.com orders.

So, to sign up, comment below, like my facebook link to the post, re-tweet the link to the post... I'll keep the entry period open for a week, until 1/13/12.

I'll end this entry with a question: what is the scent that conjures your happiest memory? Share in the comments....

*Currently Listening: "Not the Same" by Ben Folds