ormonde woman update

the other day I made my girl, K.P. smell my deliciousness of ormonde woman and she said, "oh yeah, turpentine. you like it because it smells like the studio."
that girl is a genius.


(f.y.i. I use distilled english turpentine when I paint and it is an intoxicating smell, prolly the main reason for me becoming a painter.)

dear emily,

hello! we are still our only readers...

so i was at the mall and they had the new lancome, magnifique, and i thought i'd try it. it smells like a beautiful woman walking through some ancient piazza. smells like a huge structure made of damp, dusty precious stone with a beautiful 35-year-old woman somewhere in it. i like it.

the other one i tried at the lancome counter was o de lancome, and i was really, really liking it and then i realized why: it smells like all the juicy parts of white linen with the angles rubbed off, and also it smells like clorox cleaning wipes. i love those wipes, just the regular scented ones, not the lemony ones. i never actually buy them but i love their smell. it's in the cologne genre, citrusy and green with a soapy heart. 'twould be easy to wear. (the o de lancome, not the wipes.)

i love lancome fragrances. poeme is an all-time fave because it's so heavy and dewy and cloying. and tresor is a grojsman one--did i spell her name right? whatever. and my precious fave that they discontinued is mille et une roses. sooooooo good. it's a patchouli rose but i like it more than stella mccartney.

dipped into my huge sample hoard and came up with the different company's jasmin de nuit and i'm in love. it might be sweeping aside all the child and dkny and sisley plans i had. it's sophisticated like marsha's ormonde jayne woman or whatever. SMELLS!

dear tam

you were our reader for a minute, but it looks like we lost you due to our general laziness concerning questions... and answering them.

I'm not a fan of super food-y perfumes. I like almond tea and almond bath oil from l'occitane, but otherwise... avoid.

at any rate I did some research and came up with some perfumes with almond notes I think you could try.

1.starting with the most abstract, Frederic Malle L'Eau d'Hiver I realize that it doesn't say "almond" in the notes, but I think you could stretch it for this, it has that quality of warmth.

the rest of these I just got from the fragrantica website, they have a thing that will search by notes, then give you a little description. I randomly picked ones I thought would be good. you can go to the perfumed court and get little samples of most of these for a small fee. and obviously some of the more common ones you can get free samples at nordstrom.

2. Hypnotic Poison - Dior

3. Lolita Lempicka - Lolita Lempicka

4. Burberry Brit - Burberry

5. Sensi - Giorgio Armani

6. Summer by Kenzo - Kenzo

7. Innocent - Thierry Mugler

8. Touch for Women - Burberry

9. Flower by Kenzo Le Parfum - Kenzo

10. Cinema Gold - Yves Saint Laurent

11. Cruise Collection - Escale a Portofino - Dior

12. Jasmin Noir - Bvlgari

13. Poudre - Jovoy Paris

14. Aqua Allegoria Orange Magnifica - Guerlain

15. Vanille Amande - Comptoir Sud Pacifique

16. Les Belles de Ricci Amour d`Amandier - Nina Ricci

17. Datura Noir - Serge Lutens

18. Celine Oriental Summer - Celine

19. Louve - Serge Lutens

20. Cologne Blanche - Dior

21. Premier Figuier - L Artisan Parfumeur

Ormonda Jayne-- Tolu

Luca Turin gave it 4 stars (****) (out of 5).

mmm-k. it's an oriental, probably super well made... for a grandma. older than that even, a great-grandma.

for my lover, for my lover

just kidding.


mmm. so I have this little sample package that Michelle gave me for my b-day this year... I've been biding my time on really testing these things out. I'm like that sometimes. thank you, Michelle, for this little treasure that enabled me to write this post.

Ormonde Jayne is a niche perfumery out of London. I can't remember where I heard about it first, but Luca Turin talks them up in his book. Michelle bought the sampaquita and was disappointed with it. there are a few really good perfumes they've done, Ormonde Woman is my favorite and I think Ta'if is really nice. a lot of times their perfumes remind me of other older perfumes which kindof makes me cranky. but my nose is FAR from perfect or even really educated so I could be getting cranky for no reason.

Ta'if for example is a big dusty rose, it smells hot pink to me, but not the hot pink of walmart and teenage bedrooms. this is a womanly, dangerous hot pink, a bloody hot pink, if such a thing is imaginable. there may be inappropriate touching involved. that said, it does remind me of this nicole miller perfume I was insane about it '95. I wore it every day for all occasions. maybe a little bit nuts...

right now, I'm wearing Ormonda Jayne's frangipani

it starts with that sharp and green, spicy floral you might associate with frangipani. the bright, almost citric freshness of it felt really joyful on my way to work. about 20 minutes in, it fades into a nice version of the old Lauren/Chloe, so a bit of a floriental. it's really nice and wearable. if you're earning your money in pounds, you should go for it. if not, there are other american perfumes that are just as good. or buy Chanel #5 and tell everyone to suck it.


no matter what denomination you're earning your money in I would recommend Ormonda Jayne's Ormonde Woman. Oh my jebus. this is one of my favorite perfumes ever. it starts pine-y and cool and develops into this wonderful wet/rooty thing. to me, it's warm and cool at the same time. really sophisticated, but unplaceable. that said... I don't really want you to buy it. why? duh. I want to be the only girl wearing it in the states. I want to be the only girl who knows about it and I don't want to read about it in lucky next month thank you very much. so just forget I ever said anything about it, won't you?