Winning stuff is fun!!

So La Parfumer Rebelle does a give away each month and....

I won the July package, which was put together by Justine of Oh, True Apothecary and The Scented Djinn. And so today, the day before my birthday (and where the hell has the last 45 years gone, I'd like to know), I got a box. With stuff! And things! And stuff!

Two bright pink La Parfumer Rebelle t-shirts, one of which will fit me.

A four ounce canister of Scented Djinn's rose geranium powder. While I don't normally wear powder, Darkrose does and this smells good enough that I might end up using some too.

A little bag with ginger candy and some tea.

A bar of hemp soap (scented with lavender and rosemary) from Sierra Soapurri (who sound like they're somewhat local). It's got poppy seeds in it too, so it's nice and scrubby.

A little sample of her Mock Violet Eau de Toilette.

A .5oz bottle of the Boronia Eau de Cologne that I love so much.

AND! What looks to be at least 2ml of her brand new prefume, Serj. It's an eau de perfume whose key notes are: fir balasam, hyacinth, orange juice and ruh khus (which is vetivert that's been hydro distilled). I've only given this a quick sniff, but it smells really interesting and I can't wait to settle down with it and review it.

So yay winning things! It's not something that happens to me all that often and that it was stuff from Scented Djinn just made it even cooler.

Speaking of reviewing, I know I've been kind of quiet lately, but things around here have been a little hectic and tiring what with a certain amount of running around getting things done for the wedding. My lovely and talented co-blogger, Helens, is off on vacation for a couple days and I'm having the fun birthday weekend--dinner with Darkrose tomorrow, dinner with Darkrose and my sister Saturday, and our once monthly fannish get together on Sunday. I hope to review the Serj at some point during the weekend and also, I have two samples from Loreto for the wedding perfume; reviewing those will be fun because they're very similiar.

Top...um...Few Summer Scents

So several of the bigger perfume blogs are doing their lists of Top Ten Summer Scents.

I don't have ten of them, but here, in no particular order is, the short list of things I like to wear in the summer. In the coming week, I'll be reviewing the ones I haven't already reviewed, along with a couple of LE's from BPAL.

1. Boronia Eau de Cologne by The Scented Djinn -- I'm dead serious about what I said in my review the other day. As soon as I get paid, I'll be picking up a couple of dram sized bottles and filling up an atomizer to carry with me on days when I have running around to do.

2. The (un)Poisoned Tea Cup by Blooddrop -- Tea Scents are in and off themselves, incredibly refreshing, and this one has the added advantage of a nice tart fruit scent. It's crisp and sharp and is another day-time-when-it's-100F-outside kinda scent.

3. California by Possets -- Fabienne's hommage to my home state isn't necessarily what I would have done--it's really too evocative of SoCal--but it is quite nice. It starts with a burst of juicy but not too sweet orange and then drys out into a very interesting floral with a faint resin note underneath. It's deserty and dry, but not "hot," and is a really nice thing to wear on an summer evening as things finally start to cool down.

4. Morgause by BPAL -- Violets and incense together make the perfect summer floral oriental, sweet and maybe a little old fashioned, but not cloying. This will be what I wear if we go to High Tea while my sister is visiting next month.

5. Ruth by Loreto Aromatica -- This is a nighttime scent in the summer; it would be a bit much in a hot car before the a/c kicks in. But on an evening, or on a day when we're heading to the Bay Area where it will be foggy and cool, it's perfect.

* * * *

Also, it's Double XP weekend on City of Heroes/Villains aka CoX, which means maybe one review from me over the weekend. CoX is an MMORPG in which you play either a superhero fighting crime or a supervillain doing crime. I'll probably be logged in and playing during most of my waking hours.

Hmmmm...I think that Arcana's Caffeinated Death is the perfect gaming perfume.

Cool, Crisp and...Gone -- Boronia Eau de Cologne by The Scented Djinn

Tonight--I've decided to be honest here; I rarely review anything until sometime after ten, so saying "today" is a little misleading. Anyway, tonight, I'm sniffing Boronia Eau de Cologne from The Scented Djinn, which, by the way, is an awesome name for a perfume company.

"a contemporary take on a classic eau de cologne featuring the typical citrus sparkle of an EdC matched with the floral magic of boronia. This blend includes bergamot, lemon essence (from the juice, not the peel), neroli, lavandin absolute, rosemary, orange flower tincture, vanilla tincture, yuzu, oregano tincture, orris butter and boronia."

I'd never heard of Boronia before, and sadly, the Wikipedia article on it is kind of lacking in information. However, my google-fu did turn up this very lovely set of photos. So yes, once again, I'm sniffing blind, as it were.

Edit: The most recent post at Oh, True Apothecary talks about boronia, so now I know more than I did last night when I was reviewing this.

It opens with a sharp, cold burst of citrus; I really get the lemon and the yuzu more than anything else. Almost immediately on the dry down, I can smell the neroli and the vanilla and another floral note that has to be the boronia. Unfortunately, I'm trying this from a sample vial when it really needs to come from a spray bottle, so it's hard to get enough on me at enough strength to review because just ten minutes in and my skin has soaked it up like crazy, even though I made sure to use lotion before hand.

What lingers, however, is lovely. The citrus has died down and what's left is a nice vanilla flavored floral that isn't too strong on either the vanilla or the flowers. Nor is it too sweet. In fact, it's very much what an eau de cologne should be, crisp and refreshing and light. I hope she starts selling this in bigger bottles, because right now all you can get is a dram. A bigger bottle with an atomizer would be a lovely thing to have in my purse this summer. I mgiht just have to pick up a couple drams and dump...er, decant, them into an atomizer.

Also, check out her blog, Oh, True Apothecary, for insights into the life of a natural perfumer.