Sorry for that quite horrid bit of alliteration in the post title; I’m writing this at just before one in the morning and, after a certain time, my brain switches into Standby Mode. I start thinking in clichés and overusing semicolons; I have to fight my own fingers in order to produce sentences with less than twelve commas. Lazy writing, basically. The curse of those who “burn the midnight oil”. Anyway, back to the point of this post, which isn’t my flagrant disregard for sensible working hours, but perfume.

I spent quite a large chunk of last Friday afternoon photographing some of the new fragrances that have made their way into my beauty room. (Actually, I have taken so long to get around to this particular task that one or two of these perfumes aren’t that new at all – I think the Marni Rose came along at the start of last autumn and elle L’aime by Lolita Lempicka a few weeks before that. But let’s move swiftly on…) Messing about trying perfumes is something that I usually only have time for when I’m at the airport, waiting for a flight, but I had a large box of these new(ish) releases awaiting my attention and I needed to get it out of the way. It had been in the middle of the room for so long that I had begun to use it as a little sidetable when I was filming makeup videos, resting the mirror on top of it and laying out my cotton buds and makeup removers and spare camera batteries!

And I must say that I’m glad I finally got on with testing a load of these fragrances out, because I have found a few new favourites that will most definitely be getting a regular outing from The Cabinet of Fame.* The first of these new favourites is Marni Rose (pictured above). Now a quick goosey-gander about the internet shows that many people actively dislike this perfume (it’s grannyish, it’s old-fashioned, it’s this-and-that) and it doesn’t really help my case that Mr AMR actively disliked it too, when I asked him for his verdict. But there is something I find incredibly moreish about this scent, something that has me inexplicably hooked. It reminds me a little of Velvet Rose & Oud from Jo Malone, though it doesn’t have the staying power, and it also has the woody darkness of YSL’s Majestic Rose. But the first hit of the Marni is clean and light – a pure rose scent that’s almost icy, if that makes any sense… After that it pulls you in with this exotic, woody, almost masculine base. As mentioned, the lasting power isn’t great – you’re not going to pick this up on your pillow two days later – but for me, it’s most definitely a keeper. The only thing is, I can’t seem to find this online! Has it been discontinued? Or was it just so popular that it sold out? Very curious.

Another hit for me, the Neroli & Orchidée fragrance from l’Occitane (here, and pictured above). It’s very heady, very “South of France” on a summer’s evening. (l’Occitane are total experts at recreating the smells of the South of France, in my opinion – their Calanques perfume, sadly a limited edition, smelt as much like the sea as you could get whilst remaining pleasing to the nose.) Good longevity and interesting enough to set it apart from your usual summery Neroli offerings; it’s strictly a holiday kind of perfume for me (maxi-dress on and off for an evening meal at the local taverna) but that’s just because I associate Neroli with holidays. If you don’t associate that heady, bittersweet orange smell with holidays then this would make a lovely, sunny everyday fragrance for the summer months.

Last interesting find before I direct you to watch the little video that I made; Lolita Lempicka’s elle l’Aime (here, and pictured top). Lolita Lempicka’s confusingly-named L l’Aime launches later on this month, but it’s the first one that caught my attention – another warm, summery kind of scent, but this one slightly more beachy than the Neroli. I get quite a hit of coconut and vanilla with this one, but interestingly it’s the sandalwood that I noticed first – it instantly reminded me of Santal Blush by Tom Ford. The sandalwood is short-lived and the main bulk of the smell is, to me at least, quite similar to the NUXE Prodigieux that I wrote about last week – fruity top notes, tropical coconut, jasmine, a bit like how the best suncream in the world would smell, if you could invent one – but there’s enough sandalwood there to make elle l’Aime something that I want to wear again and again.

There are a few other little springtime fragrance suggestions for you in the video below, though most of them will suit the warmer days more than the chilly, rainy ones we’re bound to have – Jo Malone’s Rain & Angelica is probably the most spring-appropriate option if you live in the northern hemisphere! The video was uploaded in a hurry and so you need to click the little wheel on the bottom of the screen to make the quality of the recording better. Otherwise I’m a bit pixellated and it’s like watching videos from 2003 using your dial-up internet connection.

If you’re reading this on email then please click here to watch the vid, otherwise scroll on down – links to the products shown are below. There are also a few perfumes that have just landed with me, too late to go into the video, so I’ll be writing about those here on the website instead. A rather lovely duo by the maker of my favourite foundation and an incredibly dark and sexy scent for naughty evenings in…

Click here to read about more rose-scented things or here to see more perfume reviews. 

l’Occitane Neroli & Orchidee: http://goo.gl/e5Pg0J

Lancome La Vie Est Belle Eau de Toilette: http://tidd.ly/21584f53

La Vie Est Belle Eau de Parfum (LOVE THIS!): http://tidd.ly/62ef4cf

Lolita Lempicka Elle l’Aime (love this!): http://tidd.ly/6f072dcc

Lolita Lempicka L l’Aime (fruitier): out this Spring

Lazy Sunday Mornings from Replica by Maison Martin Margiela:http://rstyle.me/n/cx86ct6a6

Rain Collection by Jo Malone: http://rstyle.me/n/gq6cyt6a6

*The Cabinet of Fame is a name that I have only just, this very moment, made up for my tall, glass-fronted IKEA shelving unit. It just sounds a bit grander and more exotic than “IKEA shelving unit”, doesn’t it? You’ll have seen this cabinet behind my head if you regularly watch my videos – people are always asking what’s inside it and the answer is that it’s mostly stuffed full of perfumes. Perfumes and little beauty objets that I’ve collected over the years.