Scent of a Memory

From Grandma, I learned of atomizers (up until recently, however, I had a habit of simply describing them, "Those bottles with the rubber bulby thing." until I was describing being shown a calming sage spray (3 drops of sage oil in clean water.) that someone sprayed-atomized? me with on a bad day, that calmed me down. "Oh, atomizers!" I learned a new word.)
 and beautiful glass bottles filled with magic potions of flowers and herbs.

Pulled Feather Iridescent Art Glass Perfume Atomizer from  fancy4glass.ca

On my dresser, I keep a bottle of the classic, Miss Dior, (a strong favorite since 1947)-
I remember it on Grandma... since the stuff in the bottle is the color of weak tea and is not my usual... it's been described as strong, sexy, with a lot of sweat notes... but I remember it on her... and remember flowers.
Its formula is a green chypre. The newer formula is "grassy and soapy". The scent I know, however, is green galbanum with gardenia, and a certain, sexy (as in the grinning, in the catbird seat sort of way.) and vanilla, jasmine, rose, narcissus, and neroli, iris. The ambergris, courtesy of a certain waxy, viscous ooze from whales that gives off a strongly sweet odor with a darker, dirtier tone than what most perfumes use now,  was prized highly- it is now mimicked, never duplicated.

Vintage Dior, courtesy of the Perfume Chronicles

I typically use Pure Grace for myself--- freshly washed with a touch of musk. Aka... baby clean but with that certain air of mystery. If people get close to me while I'm wearing it, I get "oh that's nice!" and "What IS that?"
I guess it's supposed to be a bit like how the King of Siam describes women in the King and I--- most people smell the clean, some catch the musk... "A woman should be like a flower, with honey for only one man..." It's a pretty mixture of bergamot, water lily, lavender, jasmine, "cool greens", and musk- with the company describing it as clean and sensual, sort of like that favorite clean- or just a little bit worn T-shirt (you steal or borrow from a close friend.)

But this was introduced to me today... one company sells perfumes meant to be based on blood type... A, AB, O, etc...
I checked the A's and was curious, although not my usual style. If Miss Dior is too "sweaty and heavy" for me, (but it worked well on Grandma, a classy broad with a certain je ne sais quois... she knew how to make an outfit work, got her hair done at least once a week--- only a decade ago did she quit dying it her natural champagne blond--- and got it permed regularly.) --then this "Slightly metallic" fragrance that imagines the scents blood would have, might not be my cup of tea.

"A" Perfume, by Blood Concepts

Description:


The Scoop
Intensely green and aromatic in its opening, Blood Concept A rushes at you with a minty, crushed herbs and leaves accord married with the rich spice of star anise. Its surprising dry down is amber-like, with hints of licorice and — believe it — the faint round softness of bubble gum. Of all these metaphorically blood-borne fragrances, Blood Concept A comes closest to evoking a perfume in the floral family, if only for a nanosecond, and because of its initial salvo of garden greens. It’s clear almost immediately, however, due to the signature metallic tinge that flashes like lightning through the olfactory air here and in the rest of the Blood Concept line that we are in a surreal, mineral world where fecundity is signified otherwise, and where flowers do not grow.



A Notes
Green garden accord, tomato leaves, basil, star anise and metallic notes

So it begins as I know, clean and green, and then mellows into a metallic-y smell. It is interesting, and I'm quite curious.