Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Crucible of White (CB Cradle of Light)

I'm puzzled.  I'm excited.  I may be about to make a fool of myself.

I have a sample of CB I Hate Perfume Cradle of Light.  You know, CB's gift to white florals and expensive ingredients.  I applied today for the first time.  Mother of all that is green perfume fabulous, thank you.  Thank you for not being afraid to toss in some tobacco.  Thank you for remembering all the material that makes a plant.  Thank you for keeping it interesting, and developing, as a perfume should.  Thank you for the hint of floral that never whams.

SCREECH.  Yup.  That's right.  With full open acknowledgement that this is just the first run, I have to say this:  I really don't get the white floral part.  (I'm still standing, because I'm just too stupid or naive to duck and cover.)  And I'm nervous, because that's what the fracas {ha, ha, ha} is supposed to be all about.

What I'm getting is the happiest non-galbanum green experience I've had thus far in my short but intense perfume career.  With that waft of tobacco I mentioned, which isn't even mentioned in the official notes.  I figure the possibilities are these:

1) All sniffers are different; YMMV.
2) I was on the verge of a migraine for 2 days, and finally ditched it earlier today.  My sniffer is still affected.
3) I'm stark raving mad.* 
4) The juice in the vial is really something else.

*BTW, if you happen to have any good expressions for mad/off your rocker/cuckoo/nuts/one brick shy of a load/etcetera, please share them with me.  I know someone who is conducting a linguistic study, and I can pass along the data.  Thanks.

I really must return to this.  Whatever happened here, I liked it.

****
UPDATE:  Oh, precious beast that haunts drydowns...can it be?...more than THREE HOURS after application, and white florals emerge?  Sweet mother of drawn out pleasure, by this point you have made me forget my ambivalent relationship with white florals.  I love that you have managed this (perhaps by taking so long?), that the green still informs it all, that you made me wait, that I almost forgot, then THERE YOU WERE.  You make me think I should always delay at least three hours before publishing a test drive review. 

Whatever ends up becoming of us, I am glad you came into my life.  I couldn't have appreciated you as much when I was (a) younger (perfumista), and may not appreciate you as much when I am (an) more experienced (perfumista).  

Experiencing CofL might end up being a terrible case of "the first one is free."  Ready?  Are you sitting down?  You can find a 1/4 ml (that's right; 0.25 ml.) decant for $10 from the Perfumed Court.  You'll have to go to a CB boutique to find retail bottles, which near as I can tell are $50/2ml.  And the sad thing is, I'm up in the middle of the night, writing and sneaking one more hit.  Thanks, Tom, for my sample.   It'll go in the safe deposit box.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like quite the experience; I really must sniff some CB creations.

ScentScelf said...

Jen,
I have not smelled many myself, but I aim to remedy that. I have a decant of Black March and a sample of Burning Leaves, both of which I enjoy very much.

Perfumeshrine said...

Darn...blast....geez....I feel like I have missed out. And here I am hankering to experience what you did.
"I'll have what she had!" ;-)

ScentScelf said...

Who knew? A potential grail snuck in the back door. Or was it just a good time? I don't know...yet...and I don't really care...
;-) , indeed. :)

Rose said...

Ooh very intriguing.I need to try some CB's. They have such great names.

Lucy Fishwife said...

I got In The Library, which was weak and sadly disappointing (with a name like that I was so ready to love it) and Black March, which I like but am saving for spring, and Russian Caravan Tea which my friend Catherine promptly stole. Will deffo try Crucible of Light now.
PS terms for mad which are regularly used by people I know include "mad as a box of frogs", "barking", "doolally", and the very unPC "mental". None of which have ever been applied to me.

ScentScelf said...

Rose,
They do have such intriguing names. I haven't tried many, though Demeter Rain, from the CB era, was one of the few things you could find in my cabinet BPE (Before Perfume Era).

I do have Black March, which I love as both an experience and a layering device.

ScentScelf said...

Lucy,
I'd been hankering to try In the Library--it's good to hear your take on it. As I just mentioned to Rose, I have Black March as well, and it instantly became a part of a welcome spring ritual which I look forward to repeating in a few months. Sorry about the cabbaged Russian Caravan Tea, though of course the story raises my interest... ;)

indieperfumes said...

I love the nuanced take with time delay unfolding over the length of the description. Let it be a lesson to us all, that we can just wait awhile before making up our minds about perfume, or about anything much else for that matter.