4160 Tuesdays

Mood Scent 4 Fabulous Fruits!

It is Mood Scent 4 time again!  Our monthly blogging project where Portia (on A Bottled Rose) , Samantha  (I Scent You A Day), Megan (Megan In Sainte Maxime) and I write about a different subject linking perfume to mood or occasion. This time we picked fabulous fruits: peaches, mangos, pears, blueberries, prunes, melons or prickly pears/cactus fruits (in case you were wondering about the fruits on the photograph). It was Portia’s idea to write about fruity fragrances this month and Sam came up with the title.

Personally I like perfumes with fruit but not fragrances which are only about fruit and I find them at times challenging. But I have several which I love and joyously wear, especially if they have some peach or mango notes. So we starting with green mango in Bombay Bling!

Neela Vermeire Creations Bombay Bling

Bombay Bling is an uplifting and joyful fragrance with delicious green mango, spicy lemony cardamon and a bouquet of flowers like creamy ylang ylang, gardenia, frangipani and tuberose. Created by perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour Bombay Bling embodies very different parts of modern, colourful, buzzing, spiritual and joyful India. Curious to know what joy smells like? Try Bombay Bling.

Notes include mango, lychee, blackcurrant, cardamom, cumin, cistus, Turkish rose, jasmine sambac, ylang-ylang, tuberose, frangipani, gardenia, patchouli, tobacco, sandalwood, cedar wood and vanilla.

Parfums MDCI Péché Cardinal

Parfums MDCI (MDCI) Peche Cardinal is a young, joyful and pretty fruity floral fragrance. Wearing Péché Cardinal makes you feel innocent and playful (again). It was released in 2008, means Cardinal Sin in French and was created by perfumer Amandine Clerc-Marie. Péché Cardinal is a special treat if you like tuberose, peach and coconut in a fragrance.

The tuberose flower is fresh and green at the start like its large stem and still innocent before showing us her more lush or even carnal side. Péché Cardinal can be slightly kaleidoscopic as she changes from a sweet peach liquor boozy drink to a creamy tuberose and a light coconut milk drink too.

Notes include peach, coconut, blackberry, black currant, artemisia, tuberose, plum, lily, musk, sandalwood, cedarwood Virginian.

Envoyage Perfumes Vents Ardants

Vents Ardents starts off with very ripe lush tropical fruits reminiscent of the smell of fruits sold in a fruit stall in the burning hot sun at a tropical beach. Fruits are slightly starting to decay in the heat but they are still good enough to eat. There is a thin line between very ripe fruits getting too cloying and just the right touch. But perfumer Shelley Waddington did an excellent job by staying on the right side of the line in this eau de cologne. Vents Ardents smells of boozy rum from the Caribbean as well, moving more into amber territory with sweet vanilla beans and balsamic resins.

Vents Ardents means ardent winds in French. It smells like a passionate love affair in the tropical heat on one of the exotic islands in the Caribbean. Vents Ardents was created to be used as a wedding scent (or wedding night?) to be paired with Nectars des Îles thus creating a new fragrance by layering them together. What a wonderful idea for a wedding scent!

Notes include Blue Curacao, Wild Oranges, Bay Rum, Tropical Fruits, Tonka Beans, Heliotrope, Magnolia, French Narcissus, Amber , Mahogany, Tobacco, Oak, Driftwood, Vanilla, Balsams.

4160 Tuesdays Doe in The Snow

After visiting Modern India, the Maldives and Caribbean islands we are visiting the UK on a cold winter day with Doe in the Snow from perfumer Sarah McCartney. Doe in the Snow was originally created as a wedding scent for Lizzie Ostrom also known as Odette Toilette. Doe in the Snow smells like scenting fresh lemon from an expensive Italian cologne worn by a fellow traveler while waiting for the train on an ice cold polar windy train station on a crisp winter morning.

Notes include grapefruit, cedrat, yuzu, peach aldehyde, snow, cedarwood, rose, jasmine, oak, opoponax, oakmoss, leather, green tea absolute

Goutal Quel Amour!

This composition opens with fresh tart red currants. After some seconds, a very large pink bouquet of fragrant peonies enters the stage followed by red pomegranate jelly. Fancy pink petaled large roses and light powder join as well. They create a beautiful blend of sweet pink peonies, a touch of powdery rose, tart red summer currants and Middle Eastern pomegranate jelly. Although this fragrance has been discontinued it is still widely available online. Grab a bottle while you still can if you like romantic floral (fruity) fragrances.

Notes include red currant, pomegranate, peach, cherry, blueberry, peony, geranium and amber

These are the fabulous fruits perfumes I picked. Have a look on Samantha’s blog I Scent You A Day Megan’s blog  Megan in St. Maxime  and Portia on A Bottled Rose,  to read they choices too!

Leave a comment, I love to read your fabulous fruit perfumes!
What are your favorite fruit perfumes?

Disclosure: All fragrances or samples mentioned in this article were bought by me personally. Photographs were made by me as well and are an artistic expression. Bottles which are sold now, might be different from the ones shown on the photographs.

Is A Perfume Name Important To You?

Is a perfume name important to you? This is a question which came up on one of my Instagram posts last week when posting this photograph of Does in the Snow*.  4160 Tuesdays Doe in the Snow is an intriguing name for a fragrance. When I read the name Doe in the Snow it instantly got my attention. I like the perfume as well. On the other hand I have a bottle of Caron Aimez-Moi (which translates to Love Me in French) which I do not wear due to its name. I find its title needy and not very inviting and honestly I haven’t given it much wearing because of this as it bothers me.

Another perfume brand I love for its names and stories is Brooklyn based DS&Durga. Titles like Burning Barbershop and Portable Fireplace for a scented candle which are very inviting and give a very good idea of its fragrance as well. I like both of them and tried (and bought)  them for their names. They make me smile every time I see them.

Titles for a perfume can be personal and when they are in a different language slightly confusing as well but I have noticed they are important to me especially when they have an interesting name which tells a little story too. So it’s not just a pretty name but there is a whole story (made up or not) behind this title too.

How about you? How important is the name of a perfume for you? Have you bought or tried a perfume because of it? Or because of the story behind the title?

Wishing you a wonderful joyful Easter!

*Doe in the Snow was created by perfumer Sarah McCartney for the wedding of fragrance specialist Odette Toilette aka Lizzie Ostrom.

DIY Perfume Advent Calendar 2018

I love advent calendars especially if they are filled with perfume. This year I decided to make my own advent calendar inspired by Sam’s wonderful post on her I Scent You A Day website  (see the link at the end of this article). One advantage is that I can use perfume samples I have laying around for testing and it is cheaper than buying a perfume advent calendar online. Although it was quite tempting not to buy a prefab calendar as some were absolutely stunning (like the Carthusia calendar!).

The Power Of Surprise

One of the great things of a ready made advent calendar is not knowing which scent you will get.  I bought the Micallef and 4160 Tuesdays Calendar before and this was what I liked most. A little and lovely scented surprise everyday. You could ask someone else to pick the samples for you, help you to wrap them and put them in the calendar. I can imagine children like to help with this as well. This was my original plan but due to circumstances my little nephew was not able to help me.

Choosing An DIY Advent Calendar

I started looking for a fill able advent calendar online on sites like Wish, Amazon and EBay. In the end I found one from textile on Wish in China. I saw several wooden calendars on the Dutch Marktplaats and Bol websites as well but it wasn’t clear if samples would fit into the boxes.

Filling The DIY Perfume Calendar With Samples

The next step was to collect the samples. This was a bit more work but it was quite nice to go through them and select the ones I wanted to try. If you don’t have samples you can order them via internet, look for them on EBay or (the Dutch Ebay) Marktplaats. Atelier Cologne has a great deal of 16 samples for 30 euro too for example. Many samples I have used for my Calendar were gifted by (with or without purchases) The Perfume Lounge, Skins or fellow perfume lovers.

The Filled DIY Perfume Calendar

I wrapped all samples in white and green thin tissue paper matching the advent tree and voila! A beautiful custom made scented advent calendar. It might be short notice now to order some things so I do hope you find these things before December 1 or you could step in some days later if you plan on making one.

Extra filling ideas! You can use little soaps or travel sizes of shower gels instead of perfume samples if you don’t have enough. Or you could use mini perfume bottles as well if they fit into the calendar days. You can find travel sizes of affordable body products at your local drugstore like Boots, Etos or Kruidvat. Small scented candles can be great as well for this purpose.

Two years ago 4160 Tuesdays used a cardboard box with small colored numbered envelopes for the days as an Advent Calendar which was a very nice idea. This should not be to difficult to find for next week. You can see this box in my previous article in the link underneath.

This is the end result! A wonderful advent perfume calendar for December 2018. It can be filled next year with other samples too!

Do you like Advent Calendars? Would you make one or did you buy one already made?

Read more about making your own Advent Calendar on Sam’s website I Scent You A Day here and thanks to Ned for this brilliant idea!

Read my previous review on the 4160 Tuesdays Advent Calendar here .