At times, amateur perfume aficionados get a little overzealous. When I first started reading the perfume and beauty blogs, and I saw the way people were raving about Chinatown, I knew I had to try it. In fact, I almost bought it, unsniffed, just for the bottle alone.My little vial of Chinatown has been floating around in the basket where I keep my samples for well over a month. I kept thinking I needed to wait for some special reason to try it, but last night I decided to pull it out and wear it today. This may sound unbelievably geeky, but some mornings I am so excited to try whatever fragrance I’ve pulled, when the alarm goes off, I am actually anxious to get out of bed. Today was one of those days.
Now, I’ve found that in sampling, more is often more, particularly when I’m applying the sample from a regular glass vial instead of an atomizer. Several times when I first started all this sampling craziness, before leaving for work, I would hold my wrist out for Bob to sniff and find that he could hardly smell a thing, so I would have to trudge back upstairs and apply more. Finally I got a little more confident with the amount I felt was right—that is, until today.
Chinatown is so unusual and so pretty, sweet and spicy at the same time. The notes are as follows:
Top: Peach blossom and bergamot
Heart: Gardenia, peony, tuberose, and orange blossom
Base: Patchouli, cedarwood, vanilla, sandalwood, cardamom, and guaiac wood
I find the scent to be a soft, powdery incense…or at least, what’s left of it. Because here’s what happened: I put way too much on. I put so much on that I had to roll down the car windows on the way to work, lest I be overcome by it and drive into a tree.** I’m pretty sure that the car itself was wrapped in a fine, golden-pink mist. My first stop when I got to the office was the ladies room, where I washed as much of the perfume off my wrists as I could before my morning meeting. And believe me, it saddened me to do so, but it was my own fault.
I can still smell what I put on my neck and cleavage, especially if I put my face down inside the front of my shirt. However, even though we have doors on our cubes, I’m afraid someone will come by and casually open my door and there I’ll be, face in shirt, sniffing away like a freak. (Tonight, on a very special "PrimeTime Live," Diane Sawyer explores a frightening new trend happening in offices nationwide: perfume huffing.) And really, I don’t need HR involved. My job is difficult enough as it is.
And so, if you weren’t sure that today was Monday, I assure you it is. I’ll wear this again tomorrow, and then maybe I’ll have something intelligent to say! In the meantime, you can read a review at Now Smell This.
*photo from LusciousCargo
**Bob left the house before I did today, or else I would have known before getting into the car that it was way too much. I simply assumed that it would mellow a bit…it didn’t! I’ll be interested to see what he says about it when I get home. He’s been liking white florals, and this is a very different take. Or would this even be considered a white floral?
