Twilight - The Lovely Collection by Sarah Jessica Parker, 2009

Reading the descriptions of the notes and some of the reviews of this perfume, which mentioned amber, incense and sandalwood, I became very curious about it. I wondered if this was finally Sarah Jessica's fabled 'own scent', created by layering Bonne Bell Musk , Egyptian Musk oil and CdG Avignon to create a potent, spicy animalic whole which sounds glorious.

From reading Chandler Burr's book, "A Perfect Scent", it's apparent that good old SJP actually does give a damn about the perfumes she creates and had long-term plans to create something that was darker, edgier and not at all like Lovely (though I believe that Lovely is a modern masterpiece and my generation's White Linen). I can't wait to smell it when she does and hoped this was my chance.

Then I spritzed. Sniffed - hmm, kind of weak, meh. Bit watery, rather like Covet in its lack of anything. And then, poof, it disappeared. Topnotes to zero within a minute. I walked away from the counter very disappointed. Repeated sniffing over the next 10 minutes gave no joy - it had gone completely.

An hour later I was browsing in a bookshop. Lifting my hand to brush hair from my face, I caught a waft of something musky and rather fabulous - Twilight was back and this time it was mucky. Musk and woods and perhaps a tiny smidge of spicy/incense but I struggled to catch it. I swear there was some patchouli in there and the musks are definitely not the laundry-fresh variety! I'm going to buy a bottle, because while the topnotes are non existent this is a great dirty musk base and I can see me layering it a lot.