With this rainy weather and summer leaving us, you might be in need of a burst of some new fresh energy.
Every time I scent Parfum d´Empire Yuzu Fou I feel refreshed and energized. This still amazes me every time I scent it. It gives me the same feeling as Dior Eau Sauvage but energizes me even more. Starting with a very fresh sour citrus, Yuzu Fou develops into a greener flowery scent. I imagine very green bamboo but this is my own imagination.
Yuzu is a Asian citrus fruit used in the Asian kitchen and in perfumes as well from time to time. If you like lemon, lime and other citrus scents this is something you ought to try. If you do not like citrus you will probably don’t like Yuzu Fou.
When I first heard the name Chemical Bonding I was a bit put off by its name. Bonding and chemical sound a bit sterile to me. The image I get is a chemical lab not the romantic idea of two people bonding. Chemical Bonding is based on two people bonding and alchemy as well. Chemical Bonding was launched in 2006.
I bought Ineke’s beautiful Deluxe Sample Collection Set with all of Ineke’s 7 perfumes. One of the samples was Chemical Bonding. The discovery set is an excellent way to get introduced to her whole collection. All of Ineke’s perfumes are categorized by alphabet, an abecedary as Ineke calls it herself. Ineke Ruhland has her own small perfume house in San Francisco.
When I first scented Chemical Bonding I did not like its opening note. It was (and still is) too harsh and loud for me. It smells like sour citrus. Ineke calls it a citrus cocktail herself. Or it could be the tea note in the beginning as I do not like tea perfumes, such as Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Vert or Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Blanc. After this loud sour citrus burst, surprisingly I got a more mellow clean musky base. Very pleasant and fresh. In Dutch you have a saying to bite through the sour apple to get something nice afterwards. In English the saying is to bite the bullit. It is like this in Chemical Bonding, after the sour part the really nice part of the perfume starts to kick in !
The principle of Chemical Bonding of two opposites attracting can be found within this perfume in the citrus and the more clean mellow musk. I found this quite interesting. The Fragrantica website classifies Chemical Bonding as a floral fruity and Michael Edwards as a crisp citrus fruity. Personally I would classify it as a musky citrus.
Some find Chemical Bonding too mainstream and in general reactions are mixed. Personally I prefer to wear Chemical Bonding on a hot day. On these days it works best on my skin. It smells even better sprayed on clothing. Chemical Bonding will not end up in my top 10 list but I like to wear it from time to time in summer.
Ineke Ruhland just introduced a new perfume to her abecedary, H Hothouse Flower. This based is based on gardenia, one of my favorite flower scents in perfume. I really look forward to trying her interpretation of the gardenia flower.
Notes according to Ineke leaflet with Discovery Box and website:
As this is my first blog about perfumes I was wondering what perfume to choose to write about. I wanted to write about a perfume I really like and from a fragrance house I really like as well. Penhaligon´s is such a house and British.
Penhaligon´s is a very old fragrance house which started with a shop in London in 1870. Their site is one of the best from a fragrance house I have come across. They give online advice on a perfume if you fill out a form online and sent it to them. Which I did and I will write about their advice next time.
About the eau de toilette Castile. I was drawn to this perfume because of its name. Castille, one of the now autonomous communities of Spain, say a kind of state within Spain. To me if you say Castille you say Spain in all its origins. And this appealed to me, being partly Spanish. So when I smelled the eau de toilette Castile I was really surprised to smell Spain, that is azahar. Azahar is the Spanish for orange blossom. You smell Castile by Penhaligon´s and it smells so lovely of orange blossom. But not only orange blossom, as I have smelled other neroli or fleur de oranger scents before. And I do not like most of them. Like Serge Lutens Fleurs d´oranger which I do not like either. Maybe it is the mixture of neroli, petit grain, and orange blossom in Castile. All scents of oranges. I do not know but it reminded me of my Spanish grandmothers home and all the lovely memories of wonderfull Christmas holidays came up. Whoever made this perfume must have had quite an idea of how Spain smells. I could not find any information about the perfumeur of Castile, unfortately. If Spain would be a smell, to me, it would be Castile by the English perfume house Penhaligon´s.
So would I recommend it? Yes I would if you like neroli, fleur de oranger or orange blossom and a summery smell into your house. Penhaligon´s sells scent library with 10 different samples on their site. The older scent library contains Castile as well. The scent library can also be bought via ebay from time to time as well.
Commentaries online were quite positive. American reactions commented on the scent as a grand old European hotel soap scent. In general it was commented that it is expensive and some say it is a soapy scent. In the Netherlands a bottle of 100 ml is 90 euro. But you can buy Castile quite regularly on the British ebay site for half or even a third of that price. You can order 5 different samples in the Netherlands at the webshop from Celeste in The Hague for 10 euro. On Penhaligon´s site you can see where their scents are sold throughout the world.
Castile is in the citrus group and on some sites it is considered a masculine smell. After shave and shaving cream is sold as well. But personally to me it is a more feminine scent and my boy friend agrees. He likes the scent as well.
Notes: neroli, petit grain, bergamot, orange blossom, rose, precious woods and musk
Longevity: quite good for a citrus eau de toilette
The eau de toilette was bought by myself. I do not have any links with Penhaligon´s, my comment is completely independent.
