July 6, 2007 11:05 PM,  Dain said...

If you throw in the smell of the sea, and maybe some car exhaust, you've got it. : ) I kind of get what you mean about layering, though I never do it myself, because my nose is extremely sensitive and it confuses me. But it makes sense--people mix oils together all the time, why not use more complicated elements, if they're more or less monotone? It's hard to find perfumes that are complex top down. There's a lot that are just "top", usually citrus and florals, and there's quite a few that are just "base", often gourmand. I don't know how to explain the difference, but like today, I had on one wrist Fracas, the other, BVLGARI pour Femme. They're both white florals, so you'd think they'd be created equal, but while the BVLGARI is a sweet warmhearted little bouquet (your phrase, "wall of yum" came to my mind as I sniffed), Fracas is a composition, played out over time. The difference is enormous. You wouldn't ever want to use Fracas to layer, but the BVLGARI would be ideal for it.

July 6, 2007 11:57 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

It did cross my mind to throw in an ocean note...I went to San Clemente once, it was...unreal. There is an unreality to Southern Cal, but it's blended with hard-nosed realism. You'll be driving on the freeway, 80 miles per hour...because you have to drive so, so much. You can't drive slowly. Then you'll exit and suddenly everyone is going 15 MPH. You have to be a good driver.

I never thought of myself as a "layerer" until I did the 7 samples thing for Etro. It's...modular? It reminds me of programming, where you think in terms of components. A few Etro scents stand well alone, like Shaal Nur and Royal Pavillon (of the ones I tried anyway), but the rest seem almost like parts of a scent.