Yvette by Michael Storer

If the fragrance Stephanie can be equated to the Hollywood star Ava Gardner, the fragrance Yvette could be equated to another movie star, the full-brass redhead Rita Hayworth. This strikingly beautiful femme fatale was as much of a powerhouse as she was a demurely sensitive feline. That's exactly what the fragrance of Yvette brings to mind. It stands very strong on its own two legs but at the same time it is purringly gentle, sensitive and oh so persuasive. When I smell Yvette it's like suddenly donning a pair of 3-D glasses, for I detect multiple layers ...but at the same time I can smell through the total sum of them all, almost like peering into a wondrous hologram. One gets the feeling there is no end to its depth. You simply want more... An extraordinary experience.

The overlying note of Yvette is a rich plumminess through which a white floral accord sparkles. This floral accord is dominated by an exquisitely delicate lily of a warm, soft and creamy fragrance supported by warm spices, rose, ylang ylang, carnation and jasmine. Through it all weaves a trace of tarragon to lend it a subtle green twist. One of the first things I noticed when smelling Yvette was that it has such a wonderful sweet note going on in the background, not an overpowering sweetness, but a remarkably rich yet gentle and tender, almost dessert-like creaminess. It's the broom absolute which adds a creamy, honey floral character with slight fruitiness to this wonderful composition. I just love that note.

The overall effect is quite complex in the best possible of ways. A perfume you really have to experience to understand. With this fragrance you wont go unnoticed!

Yvette and her two 'sisters' are available as eau de parfum strength. Bottled by Mr. Storer himself.

Michael Storer's three 'sisters' and his men's fragrances are available at the website of MICHAEL STORER Fine Fragrances: http://www.michaelstorer.com/

as well as at Lucky Scent online and at their trendy Scent Bar in Los Angeles: http://www.luckyscent.com/

Stephanie by Michael Storer

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you one of Michael Storer's three "sisters"...... Stephanie. This is no shy lady, she pulsates like a shining star, and a star is exactly what she is. This fragrance is highly addictive, so consider yourself well warned. It's a fragrance inspired by the headspace of the luscious white blooming Gardenia, sultry, voluptuous and so unbelievably sensual. Have you ever put on a perfume and found that you couldn't stop smelling your wrist? Well, this is such a perfume. Once you apply it, you keep sneaking a whiff because you just can't get enough of it; you want to inhale deep breaths of this seductive elixir.

One day I let my older brother smell Stephanie. Now he loves to talk, and I've noticed numerous times when I ask him to try a perfume, he whiffs it cursively and promptly goes right on with what he had been jabbering about, meanwhile keeping me waiting for his thoughts on the scent he had just put on. With Stephanie it was different. I put it on his wrist, and he actually stopped talking! He smelled, he looked up like he was searching for something in his mind, smelled again, and finally started to speak, exclaiming to me that he really loved this fragrance. I had to laugh to myself, because I caught him smelling his wrist the rest of the evening.

I have exactly the same experience with Stephanie, there is something definitely beguiling about this fragrance. The notes are truly sublime. There is a fresh green crispy top that makes this gardenia come alive and bloom. it's as if you were wafting this incredible white flower "au natural" together with the green leaves that surround it. I have smelled a lot of different gardenia fragrances, but they are nothing at all compared to this bejeweled star. For example the perfume Kai; it's so different. Kai smells nice but a bit "chemical," a bit too sharp and edgy, and it's more in the direction of Jasmine. Stephanie is the real deal. A classic Hollywood star.

Besides the scent of gardenia this perfume contains the notes of:

Pink pepper, black pepper, galbanum resin, angelica root oil, sambac jasmine absolute, tuberose, and a slight touch of chrysanthemum for crispness. Gentle sandalwood notes and vetiver anchor the bottom of this perfume, but as if by magic, they don't push their way into the flower scent but simply offer subtle support and longevity. A real tribute to Mr. Storer's ingenuity as a perfumer.

Arhianrad (Juvy Santos) wrote in her blog winterstorming, a beautiful review about Stephanie, one of the things she said was:

"A White Floral to End All White Florals. Gardenia's answer to Tuberose's Fracas. This belongs to the vamps and the starlets of yesteryear, the curvaceous and the bold. It is unrelentingly sexy--a fragrance with decolletage, and garters, red lips and lacquered nails. Ava Gardner, sultry eyes and everything."

I couldn't have said it better!

Stephanie is available at the website of MICHAEL STORER Fine Fragrances: http://www.michaelstorer.com/
as well as at Lucky Scent online and at their trendy Scent Bar in Los Angeles: http://www.luckyscent.com/

Michael Storer and his three sisters

This week is dedicated to the three 'sister' perfumes created by Michael Storer. The following days I will review all three sisters; Yvette, Genviève and Stephanie, three wonderful fragrances created by my dear friend Michael Storer. At the end of the week I will have an interview with this remarkable perfumer. I had a wonderful interview with the perfumer Michael Storer before about his men's fragrances, he already talked in this interview about launching women's fragrances as well in the future. Well, he finally did and made many ladies very happy. Tomorrow my first review about the fragrance Stephanie. The fragrances created by Michael Storer can be found at his own website:
http://www.michaelstorer.com/
and
http://www.luckyscent.com/

For reading more reviews about the perfumes made by Michael Storer please visit:
Sniffapalooza
Noteworthyfragrances
Arhianrad

Sperm attracted to the scent of Lily of the Valley???

Can human sperm cells smell? Well that is what I just read, never knew this before. There is found that human sperm cells have an odorant receptor which triggers a series of physiological events that may result in the directed movement of human sperm. The sperm-attracting odorant is named 'Bourgeonal' this is an aroma chemical used in perfumes and soap for it's Lily of the Valley scent. So where is this Bourgeonal/Lily of the Valley scent come from, does the egg of the woman produce this scent or is it produced somewhere else? They don't have an answer to that question yet. Another interesting thing is that the aroma chemical 'Undecanal' (Aldehyde C-11 undecylenic, waxy/fatty/rose/citrus odor) appears to block the effect of Bourgeonal and inhibits the chemo sensory response in sperm cells. Maybe in the future Undecanal will be used to prevent undesired pregnancies, instead of hormones, and Bourgeonal to help people to get pregnant. Who knows, and who knows they maybe will find more odorant receptors.

If you like to read more about this subject, here are some links:
NY Times
Health 24
And in German language:
3Sat

Vanille Exquise by Annick Goutal

I love the sweet scent of vanilla, the scent makes me calm and it's comforting, I love the taste of vanilla as well, I like vanilla desserts and candy's with vanilla. But to wear a vanilla perfume is a complete
different story. Most vanilla scents are too sweet and girly girly for me and since I'm not a teenager anymore, I feel that it doesn't suit me. The different perfumes by Annick Goutal are very lovely, so I was curious about the Vanilla Exquise as well.

This perfume was created in 2004 by perfumer Isabelle Doyen. She and Camille Goutal (the daughter of Annick Goutal) dreamt of a unique vanilla which could take us away to far away islands and Cleopatra's ancient milk baths of vanilla scented almond.

The notes are described as:

Vanilla from the Marquises Islands, angelica, almond, benzoin, white musk, sandalwood and Gaïac wood.

It's some sort of a woody vanilla, it's creamy but also a bit dry woody. It doesn't smell like a very complex perfume, it smells rather simple and recognizable, that doesn't mean that it's not a very well done composition though. The scent stays close to my skin, like most perfumes of Annick Goutal do, it's a calm and quiet perfume. It's a bit too quiet for my taste, it doesn't excite me.

At the opening I smell the soft floral woody note of Linalool, I guess there is used quite a bit of this material. There is a bit of a smokey note, I guess that is because of the Gaïac wood, I would have liked a bit more of this smokey note. I smell a sweet note that reminds me of sugared almonds, this could be benzaldehyde (which smells like almond) and maltol(which smells like sugar, caramel), but the angelica sure helps to add some wonderful green sweetness as well. I think besides the natural vanilla, there is also used some Veratraldehyde, which has a more woody vanilla scent and some ethyl vanillin, which is more creamier than normal vanillin. Not a bad composition, but too simple and too sweet and flat for my taste.

Available at http://www.annickgoutal.com/ a beautiful but slow site.

Apple formula

We went to Germany today, which is really close to where we life. It was real fun there, we went shopping and had a lovely walk in the local park and of course we ate 'pflaumenkuchen' a cake made with plums, I love that cake.

Yesterday I was experimenting with an apple formula, just for fun, and I like to share with you what I came up with so far, here it is:

Ethyl heptanoate 30
iso Amyl acetate 30
Ethyl butyrate 11
Ethyl-2-methyl butyrate 3
Orange oil 3
Linalyl acetate 2
Geraniol 1
Hexyl acetate 1
Geranyl acetate 1
Cyclohexyl butyrate 10% 6
Neroli 10% 3
Vertelione 3% 2
Benzaldehyde 1% 2

Your partner's choice

We all have our own favorite perfumes, but which one does your partner likes you to wear?

I just asked my DH (Mo) which perfume he likes me to wear, he answered Chanel no.5, I have to say that I like Chanel no.19 better, which was a present from him as well, I'm happy that he likes that one too. We also have a perfume we share, I talked about this before, it's Must de Cartier, it smells good on both of us. It's fun to wear the same perfume at the same time, it blends wonderful together..........

I have to make a confession

I have done it, yes I did! I have to admit. After the concentration of my perfume inspired by the painting 'The Kiss' matured and after I added the alcohol and let it stand for a while, I changed it a bit. I was not satisfied about it. O, by the way, we moved the date to 15 September instead of 15 August. Because more members of the Perfume making group wanted to participate but didn't have something ready yet, they needed some more time. I find this swap really difficult because it's so different than creating a perfume spontaneously, it had to be based or better to say inspired by the painting. I find it difficult to create something on demand. If I create a perfume, it's created it in my head first, and then it slowly develops in my head. When I start with the creation itself, I sometimes change it a bit, but the overall composition and idea remains.

While creating this perfume I changed a couple of my initial ideas. For example I used much more bergamot oil than I initial had in mind. By this I created an 'ambrein' accord.

An 'ambrein' accord is an accord based on bergamot, balsamic notes like labdanum, benzoe, tolu etc, vanilla, civet and coumarin. I combined this accord with woody notes; with the accent on sandalwood, and completed it with notes of Iris and rose. It became a very complex formula, I used over 70 different materials. And still after it was matured and all ........... I added another material; mimosa absolute. I just had to do it, it makes the top notes so nicely smooth but fresh, it combines perfectly with the bergamot, petit grain oil and the orange blossom absolute. I love this tender sweet lively note of mimosa. Well, don't think this is the best perfume I ever created, but it was a nice but tough learning experience. I hope the members of the group can give me some useful advice to make it better. We will exchange the formulas, this way the help can be more specific, and it will be a great way to see how others create their perfume, much different than only smelling the perfume and not knowing the formula. I'm really exited to smell all the perfumes of the other members, I can't wait, but at the same time I'm a bit nervous about my own contribution.

Ending with a beautiful quote from Jacques Guerlain:

"I felt something so intense, I could only express it in a perfume."

Vetiver, Vanilla and Angel

Right now it's raining here in Wolvega, in spite of the rain that is falling down at the moment, we had a lovely sunny weekend. I spent most part of the weekend on sniffing some of my new fragrance materials, and working on my fragrance with magnolia. I tried some different versions and compared them with each other. In one trial I added some more vetiver to the base notes and I like it, it's nice in combination with the cedar that I used. Vetiver is also interesting with the vanilla, it makes the vanilla less sweet. I like vanilla to be a bit smokey and woody.

Because of the nice weather I took some smelling strips that were dipped in the new materials with me outside to evaluate their smell. I took some smelling strips dipped in my older materials with me as well, to see if they would combine with these new materials. Sometimes I take different smelling strips in my hand and waft with it under my nose like a Spanish fan, to analyse the smell of the combination of these different materials.

I read somewhere the basic notes of the perfume Angel by Thierry Mugler and just for fun tried a combination of different smelling strips with these notes: Helional (ozonic, melon, sweet), Cashmeran ( musky, sweet), Maltol ( sugar, caramel), Isobutavan (chocolate, vanilla) and Patchouli oil. I held these smelling strips in one hand and waft it under my nose, and yes, it does smell like a simple version of Angel. It's an accord for sure, the combination of these notes do create a complete new scent. This is a great way to find out which notes do create an accord. Here is a video with perfumer Arthur Burnham where you can see what I mean with using the scent strips as a Spanish fan.

Greetings from the Netherlands

Today was a beautiful sunny day. My husband and I like cycling, especially if the weather is sunny as it was today. We decided to pay a visit to my mom. She, my stepfather and my little (but tall) brother are living 11 kilometers (about 7 miles) away from us. They life in a romantic little white house, which you can see on top of this post. Before we lived in another village, but we moved to this house when I was eight. I love that romantic little house with such a beautiful garden. My mother and my stepfather loves gardening and they have beautiful flowers in their garden, but also all kinds of vegetables. I like it when my mother makes vegetable soup and goes into her garden to get all the ingredients for her soup, every ingredient for her soup is freshly picked from the garden.

My husband and I life in an area with beautiful nature, we can jump on our bikes and in 10 minutes we are surrounded by breathtaking beautiful nature, we have forests but a lot of water as well. We took the route where you can bike trough an area with wild nature where you see no cars, with the river called 'Linde' alongside you. I took some photos to share this beautiful day with you.

Above a photo of my mother and me, below are some photos of the

route that we took today