Sunday, January 18, 2009

Coming Back to My Senses...

The title might suggest I'd had a cold or some such and am once again able to sniff. But no...today, it simply means I've been on a sugared fruit bender, and proceeding willy nilly from this sodden concoction to that in a rather joyous but somewhat reckless traipsing through my collection.

(I have been brutally enabled by friends...you know who you are...sending me flocks of fragrance...where to begin? How can I say no? Aren't I supposed to just have fun with this?? Gulp gulp gulp.)

No worries. I have been settled by Silences.

BitterGrace has a delightful habit of posting one-sentence reviews over at her blog, BitterGrace Notes.  (And only in this moment has the musician in me heard the joke in the title.  The gardener in me kept on thinking of bittersweet, and blocked my brain.)  Anyway, in her one line review of Jacomo Silences, she both delighted me and reminded me that I had found something intriguing in Silences when I tried it early in my scent development.  And that I thought at the time it was something I should come back to when I was more "mature," sniff-wise.

Time passes.  Remember yesterday's post, where I was waiting for my impetuous application of Fragile to fade?  It did.  I applied Silences.  Ahhhhhhh.

You know how after you haven't been eating so well...too much junk, not enough fruit and vegetables, too much processed food, not enough true flavors....how after you haven't been eating well, and you sit down and consume a well-prepared meal with plenty of all that is good and fresh and recognizable as it grew on the planet, even as you chew, your body relaxes and says "thank you!" and your mood improves and your head clears and you immediately feel better physically?  

That's what it was like to sniff Silences, from the sharp (but already layered) opening through the dark green first layer and on into the galbanum earth to the very smooth remnants of extreme dry down.  Good eating all the way.

If you follow the link above, you'll see my comment to BitterGrace; I realized that Silences is the perfect link between cool weather and flat out winter.  I am absolutely going to pull it out as winter fades; its complexity will be just right for holding interest in the cold, yet the green and dirt will give hints of the growing that is beginning under the soil (and perhaps still under the snow).  

It's good to be eating well again.  If I am honest, though, I am going to have to acknowledge that winter still has a firm grip on things, and likely will for a while; if I want to keep on encouraging my "mature" sniffer in the near future, I'll have to keep those better quality, more complex cold weather scents in my fragrance diet.

I hope you'll forgive me if I dip back into the hooch sometimes.

For other thoughts on Silences, see Victoria's review in Bois de Jasmin; hers is the take that sent me in search of a sample in the first place.  

Silences is delightfully affordable at online retailers.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I find after a sweet bender in fragrances I end up craving lavender, white florals, and green stuff.

ScentScelf said...

Ah, the lavender makes sense...it does have sort of cleansing properties...greens, too, of course. Hmm, perhaps this is a good reason to find me a gurgle of Bel Respiro???

Aimée L'Ondée said...

Yes! Great post. I absolutely love Silences as well. When I smell it, I get a first-cousin of Chanel #19, but with a fabulous flinty-thunderstorm-on-the-air briskness, almost like pencil shavings, rather than the leather of #19. Fascinating stuff.

Perfumeshrine said...

I LOVE Silences and plan on reviewing it properly soon, so you only make this come sooner. It's lovely in its bitter-green agression.

Great post :-)

BitterGrace said...

I'm late to the party, but I just wanted to say what a great take this is on Silences. It is a healing scent for me, too--all the quiet chypres tend to be. That's why I love Ma Griffe and Ivoire so much. I think every perfume addict needs a few cleansing scents in her collection to act as a sort of sensory reset. I suppose the best thing is to go scentless for a time, but I find that unbearable!

I'll stop rambling on now. Sorry I don't comment more often, but I always enjoy your blog :-)

ScentScelf said...

Now who's late? Thanks to all for your comments...

Aimee, I concur with the relation to Chanel #19, and I like your description of what makes it NOT #19.

Helg, thanks so much. I loved being prompted to re-explore...and somehow I knew I was going to be happy. I don't know if it was just Silences, or coming after all that sweet gorging, or what...but whatever the reason, I stopped dithering and ordered me up a full bottle.

BG, always a party, never late. :) I agree; certain scents can also serve to hit a kind of internal "reset" button. I am also the type to take time off, but that's just me. And, lol, only the queen of one line reviews would refer to a few sentences as "rambling"! Your presence and thoughts are always welcome, no matter how, erm, looongggg.... :)

ScentScelf said...
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