'Fumes of Spring and A Little Secret History

I've had a love affair with scents for a long, long, time.

I have written countless essays on my own personal history with scent, scent & society,

the "culture" of scent...and so on and so on. My earliest memories of fragrance trace back to

the bottle of perfume on my mother's dresser. The classic sky-blue bottle of

Estee Lauder's Youth Dew was the scent of my gorgeous, raven-haired mother.

I bought myself a bottle many years ago just so I could always have a part of her with me.

Scent is like that. As our most powerful memory-keeper, it is the fastest way

to revisit a special someone or some time.

I could go on forever and maybe this will be the place where I start to "publish" some of

my ideas, my studies, and writing on the subject.

After a few years completely off the stuff for various reasons, I am back in full force.

I have been allowing myself to decadently dabble in this costly indulgence.

Hey, I'm worth it, right? And those pretty bottles of magic make me so happy!

Thank heavens for places like TJ Maxx...for all the classic jewels like Rochas Tocade and Ma Griffe. But LuckyScent is my real weakness.

I first encountered niche fragrances at the counters of Barney's & Saks Fifth Avenue.

LuckyScents has everything niche and more...Best part, you can sample anything they carry for (usually) $3.00. This is just perfect for my every-changing moods & tastes.

I get to sample these works of artful science in small doses and at a fair price, too.

All I know is (so far), I've never met scents like these before:

Calamus: I met you three years ago right around the time I met LuckyScents for the first

time. Loving CdG, your neon green bottle and the fact that you are the offspring of Leaves...that was enough for me. I love your creamy freshness and the fact that even though you are a

green scent, you are so not one dimensional...or even two!

You are simply gorgeous and remind me of the cool bath Titania & Oberon must take together

amidst the velvety moss.

Le Labo: Forgive me for avoiding you for so many years. I wrote you off as another

hipster niche fragrance after you moved your fragrance lab to downtown nyc.

A lab? How pretentious, I thought.

Then there was the guy at Stink Bomb's old job at the bakery who said, "You love perfume?

Oh, YOU MUST GO TO LE LABO AND TRY ROSE 31!!!!"

"Okay. Sure," I said...as I really thought "Yeah, right! Now get away from me, please!'

But my girl Katie is always dead-on and she has the best nose around and she seems

to have similar tastes in 'fumes as me and I'm a little in love with her as a person...

So, I broke-down recently and sampled Labdanum 18.

Oh. My. My.

This stuff is....one sexy but tame, french smelling beast.

It is not dirty-sexy, although there is a definite waft of animalistic stuff thrown in the mix, but it is way in the background here.

This one has an unusual haunting innocence about it.

-Meant for a romantic date at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

followed by a dirty martini in the lobby of the W Hotel

and some amazingly playful conversation.

And this is the most oddly familiar scent I have ever encountered.
I have read so many interesting reviews on this one.
It has a real following. I hear a certain celebrity studied this one for a long time before
coming up with the formula for her most popular scent and ya know what?
I can totally smell the influence of this one in her frangrance. (Think synonym for the word, beautiful, here!) However,
you could never match this true masterpiece.
Andy Tauer, you are such an original artist and I am such a fan of yours.
It's crazy. How the heck do you do what you do with scent?

I want to sample all of your work. Soon.

This one triggers a memory of someone I have no recollection of.
It's a memory of him, whoever he happens to be.
He is real and true
and strong and natural and beautiful.

He is rare.

Smelling this about an hour after I put it on, almost makes me cry with longing for him.


These three jewels are so special, I don't know if I actually want to commit to purchasing more than the modest samples that now lay on my vanity.
Because...

I want this love to last.