L'Ombres dans l'Eau  & L'Artisan's Voleur Ros

L'Ombres is a green and tart. clear fragrance. There are no earth or grounding notes to it. It is all about transparency -- even its name "Shadow on the water," connnotes this haunting, illusiveness, not a solid body. It does not want rounding or grounding.

BTW -- you can get other L'Ombres products like bath ane hair wash, etc.
http://www.bigelowchemists.com/produ...oducts_id/1346

And the famous Baies candles (white or my favorite, the more intense Noir)

Voleur de Rose (which means Rose thief) Is a far edgier, more overtly masculine take on rose. I do not particularly like it. It is on the dry side. It has a less pronounced Rose note, the patchouly dominates (along with plum Â*and woods) to create a sense of the whole rose, stem, thorn and even garden earth for a while but teh dry down looses its rose unless you put it on fabric instead of skin. It is a heavier, almost too heavy scent which on me is not refreshingly tart (like L'Ombres) but sour. Â*I am sure this works on some chemistries but it still smells a mite clunky to me.

I think if you want to go to an wet, earthier rose and like patchouly, you might want to explore Parfums de Rosine Une Folie de Rose or if it is the woody side you prefer try Montale Aoud Rose Petals or Frederic Malle's Une Rose or Serge Lutens Rose de Nuit.

I usually layer L'Ombre with a sweeter scent like Mira Bai because I like to have the high- (sharp or green) and low- (woody or sweet) pitch notes singing at the same time. I've learned this is my pattern: to prefer two "voices" singing in relatively unchanging harmony rather than "listening" to a fragrance proceed a capella from high to low (or base) notes over time. (Thus, my new love affair with Thymes Fig Leaf & Cassis.)

I don't know why Voleur de Roses did nothing for me. It didn't even strike me as a perfume product. However, Rose d'Homme was pretty enchanting. It might relate back to the pitch or and number of "voices" coming through.

Someone more educated in music than I could probably define more terms related to key signatures, chords, progressions, etc. that would help each of us analyze what kind of "music" we prefer to wear.

Wait a wait a wait a minute. When you guys say sweet and tart, does tart mean slightly sour or just not sweet, which I've been thinking of as dry (not to be confused with just not aquatic)??? Also not to be confused with bitter, which is another subject, entirely. :-?

Tart means slightly sour. Â*Dry is absence of sweetness, but not tart.

Dry and Sweet like martinis Â*-- 60's style with only a whisper of vermouth (dry) or a cosmopolitan or appple martini (both sweet)

Imagine continuum lines 0---------5---------10

Sweet on one end, dry at the other end. (0 is dry, 10 is sweet).

Chanel Bois D'Iris is dry, for instance and Diptyques Tam Dao is bone dry. But neither is tart, or sour (or bitter for that matter.)

Chanel no. 5 is drier and Chanel no. 22 is sweeter. (Relative to each other, that is.)

White Shoulders is drier than White Diamonds but White Shoulders is not tart in any way.

Annick Goutal le Jasmin is a somewhat dry (& Light & even green) interpreation of Jasmine and Serge Lutens A la Nuit is far sweeter (and more intense but still fresh).

Keiko Mecheri Loukhoum is of course sweet.

Wood family scents are usually dry and can be bone dry if they do not have amber, honey notes or florals to sweeten them. Â*

Now we'll try it with tart

Soft, round 0-------------5------tart ----------10 Sour

Soft & round on one end running to Tart (and on to Sour at the extreme end) Â*

SL Daim Blond, Demeter Laundromat , Ralph Lauren Blue are soft
and The Different Company Divine Bergamote is slightly tart, Creed Spring Flower tarter still, 06130 Yuzu Rouge is very tart.

For me Amber, Vanilla, Benzoin, Tonka are on the soft or round end of one continuum and Cassis, berries, apricot, citrus and certain roses, for instance, are tart. Some roses go too tart toward winey and become sour, puckery even.

Amber & vanilla can not only be softening but also sweetening depending on their type and the company they keep, though.

Reminds me of cool and warm colors. Â*Reds and Oranges are definitely warm, Blues and Greens are always cool. But a yellow and a purple can change teams a bit depending on how "green" a yellow is or how "red" a violet/purple might be. In other words a cool yellow (chartreuse) and a warm yellow (amber) are both possible just as a sweet or dry Vanilla or Tonka are possible.

For example Hypnotic Poison is a sweet vanilla and Velvet Rope is a dry vanilla.

Pungent and/or tangy is not the same as tart. Pungent is a bit of a blend between tart and a touch of bitter. High-pitched might be better as a descriptor. Â*Saffron and cedarwood are good examples of pungent, some even say medicinal, but neither is tart the way a berry or blackcurrant are.

Montale Aoud Rose Petals is a bit pungent from safron, cedar and aoud, L'Artisan Voleur de Roses has a pungent, tangy Patchouly. Ditto Dana Tabu or Serge Lutens Borneo 1834

Make sense? Or as much sense as any of our poor verbal metaphors can?