Lann-Ael Lostmarch

Desirability: Decant

Source: parf.info

This smells like a mishmash of edible delights, none of which would make the Weight Watchers' menu.

Buttered popcorn of the no holds barred type. Real butter in generous amounts oozing over the piping hot popcorn. The mysterious note that was supposed to be present in the pre-reformulation Miss Dior Cherie but which eluded my best attempts to sniff it out. It's here! The food hallucinations shift to pancakes, waffles and french toast dripping with maple syrup and a hefty mound of butter balancing precariously on top. 

I smell breakfast cereal swimming in milk, not the healthy rabbit food lookalikes but more toward the colourful pebbles, you know the kind that's chock full of "nutritional" stuff. The milk smells like full fat milk that's heavy on cream going straight to your hips instead of bones and reminds me of the times I stayed with my sister in London back in the day when deliveries of milk in glass bottles were still widely available. So much more delicious than the stuff served in plastic-paper cartons. 

Lann-Ael. Total Comfort Food. Not just for breakfast. Actually Lann-Ael smells like I mixed Waffle Crisp, Corn Pops and Apple Jacks together.  Add the milk. Turn on the telly and get comfortable. Oh I almost forgot the popcorn for after! 

Snuggle worthy. As in everyone will want to snuggle you. Truly. You could get rich by selling Lann-Ael laced snuggles. 

Jeux de Peau Serge Lutens

The best breakfast in a bottle. 

pâtisserie, courtesy of flickr.com

Is there anything more wonderful than walking into a boulangerie, the smell of all kinds of baked goods from savoury to sweet cavorting in the air temptingly? I think not. The best crusty bread is still in France (with the humidity here, it's just not possible to replicate that crispy sound of fresh bread) and I lived for winter holidays spent at my then partner's parents' home in the suburbs of Paris. I would wake him up unceremoniously at seven am( myself already up by six) and shivering with cold, we would make our way through the precariously slippery roads to the village boulangerie, which I swear has the best bread and pastries, even better than some of the famous pâtisseries in the city. 

French toast in the making courtesy of food52.com

Once through the door, I would stop to enjoy the sheer pleasure of all the different aromas filling the warm room, noisy with orders being taken and the hustle and bustle of delicious treats being baked and laid out all over the place. A daily occurrence for those living there but for me, it was a veritable treat just experiencing it. The smell of the boulangerie was stored in my mind and nothing in Asia quite matched it until I found Jeux de Peau.   

Heidi, Johanna Spyri, courtesy of flickr.com

It will be too sweet for some and is unmistakably a gourmand, but perfect for those days you crave solace. Warm and smoky, dripping syrupy amber-hued honey all over you, loaves of bread being toasted in the background, or waffles or french toast, if it's yeasty baked goods you crave, it's in this scent. If you enjoy spices with your toast and waffles, there's a wee sprinkle of it here. Just as Heidi had fresh goat's milk for breakfast every morning with the Alm Uncle, so have you milk provided in Jeux de Peau, full cream of course, none of that reduced fat crap. So there you go, a comforting and nourishing breakfast in a bottle. Not complex, but original for sure and very tasty. 

Jeux de Peau is a robust scent at the opening and stays linear,  losing its steam gradually. I'm averaging around 6-8 hours of lifespan, but it's a pleasure to reapply and experience it all over again. It's not a safe blind buy due to it's 1) sweetness 2) uniqueness but for me it's as heart-warming as a hug from a loved one.

PG04 Musc Maori Parfumerie Generale

Scent of the night: Musc Maori, from a Luckyscent dab sample. My previous forays over a year ago into the PG line left me unmoved and I have been repeatedly urged to try more before dismissing this very popular niche house.

So here I am with the scent applied to both wrist and sleeve. My first thought, sour milk! Oh no what have I done, I just showered! I don't want to sleep with sour milk! Thankfully, the sourness disappeared and left the creamy milk behind (Fragrantica lists green notes in the pyramid for Musc Maori so perhaps that was the culprit, but whatever it is I'm glad it exited quickly).  I smell chocolate, bittersweet and powdery.  A brief image of Muller Corner with cocoa balls flashed through my mind and got my sweet tooth going. 

Just as Musc Maori and I started getting along just fine, something that smells like bergamot shows up? What?! I recheck the label on the sample and it says Musc Maori...where is this citrus zest coming from?-- I'm looking at you "green notes"! So now I have full cream milk+ bittersweet chocolate powder+ citrus rind. Interesting but it's neither a gourmand nor is it a cologne. Nor is it musky on me, no soap nor wild animal present here. It's more Chocolate Powder Maori than Musc Maori on me. Add a dash of citrus too.

Thankfully this has a lowish sillage on me and I can cover it with some powerhouse perfume instead of another shower before I go hunt down my bar of orange dark chocolate which I now smell like. Still not a fan of PG, but not discouraged. There has to be one that I'll fall in love with. Or at least like.