Salt + pepper shakers + Kenzo Amour
Originally uploaded by dynamist.
Those two orange things are vintage salt and pepper shakers, for which I paid a pretty penny at Mark Fisk's Mainly Art, the best store in the whole WORLD. The tall, curvaceous creature next to them is not a pricey sculpture, but a bottle of Kenzo Amour, which was gifted to me by Kenzo's PR people. (All three sit on my beloved Jens Risom credenza, another happy purchase from Mainly Art.)
Kenzo Amour is the creation of Daphne Bugey and Olivier Cresp, and features notes of cherry blossom, rice steam, white tea, frangipani, heliotrope, thanaka wood, incense, vanilla and musk. "That smells like you," my friend Karri said when she smelled it this past weekend. "You like those perfumes that have a hint of musk in them." I do indeed. (My other friend present, Katie, went wild for the scent and asked where she could buy it.)
I have to agree with Robin:
Amour starts with a sweet, highly stylised floral accord. After that, the floral notes rapidly fade into the backdrop, and the whole thing settles into a fluffy, cloud-like concoction of vanilla and musky woods. As advertised, there is a suggestion of milky rice (rice "steam" is perfectly accurate), and the whole is finished with a light dusting of powder. It is sweet, but not cloying, and manages to vaguely recall rice pudding...without being at all foody.
...Amour is, if anything, an extraordinarily tame fragrance: there is nothing to ruffle the surface other than a persistent undertone of dark wood and a dash of incense. But as with rice pudding, it is the blandness itself that is compelling; it just smells nice, and there is something rather calming about it.
As Robin also notes, it is a long-lasting eau de parfum with extraordinary staying power. I am usually the kind of girl who wears a different scent every day, depending on my mood, but for the last month I've been all about Amour. That the fuschia bottle (see the orange and white variations here) is so absolutely perfect in my home is pure, sweet-smelling gravy. Thanks, Kenzo!
