My Perfume Quest and the Second Day of the Year

The first Saturday of the year! The story goes like this: drop stuff off at Goodwill, drop the tree off at the park (but not before remembering to tell Eric that he had to cut off a good portion of the trunk for our 2010 yule log in the freezing cold without gloves using a flimsy saw on the bed of his truck!). Um, what else?

My long awaited trip to Barnes and Noble. Got: a writing book for Audrey, Little House on the Prairie (the third book in the series), and Farmer John's Cookbook-The Real Dirt on Vegetables. I have no explanation why, but I'm seriously obsessed with parsnips. I saw a recipe for a parsnip pecan cake. I must bake!!

Found Borax at Target as well. Gonna make all my own cleaners, too! Discovered The Toby Show blog and she has lots of recipes for natural cleaners. I think a bottle of vinegar and some essential oil and I should be good to go. Funny that my hubby sells chemicals for a living...

Which reminds me of a REAL story. The story of my hunt for perfume. Years ago, many years ago, I discovered Paloma Picasso. Loved it. Still have it. Around the same time, I also fell in love with Angel Innocent by Thierry Mugler. That one is gone and has been gone a good long while.

So I began a quest for a new perfume. As a teenager, I wore the heck out of Scoundrel Musk-a Joan Collins perfume that I bought at Walgreens. I love a hearty, heavy, scent. I received Calvin Klein's Obsession as a gift once-didn't like it though. The rich ambery colored perfume kind of came across stinky to me. Me+Obsession=HeavyIckySmell.

In my search, I came across a few scents that I was crazy about. I never would buy anything until Eric got a chance to experience it. After all, he was the one that was going to be smelling me and his opinion most certainly mattered. So, on the rare occasions that we would find ourselves in the perfume department at a store, I would force him to smell my favorite fragrances, hoping to find a new, exciting scent that I could call my own.

First up, Opium by Yves Saint Laurent. Opium-a flower, a drug, an aphrodisiac. Mysterious, illegal, intoxicating. What a great name for an equally amazing scent. Only Eric didn't think so. One whiff and an immediate and solid, "No". Just like that. A one second reaction and ruined.

Next up, Hypnotic Poison by Christian Dior. I loved this perfume for SO long. I almost bought it a few times, but waited for Eric to taste it first. This, I thought, was it. For sure. He might be put off for a second by its deeply rooted darkness, but he would eventually love it. The reaction my perfume and I receive? It wasn't, "No" this time. It was, "Playdough". Mmmm... what? "It smells like playdough" is what he says. So I smell it again and all I can smell is a $75 dollar bottle of playdough. He ruined ANOTHER one for me.

On a recent Christmas shopping trip to Macys, we found ourselves in the perfume department. This was going to be the year! I had it all planned out in my head. We would find a scent together that we both loved and he would give it to me for Christmas! I meant business, so I sought out the perfume lady. She was an elegant saleswoman about 20 years my senior. We talked perfume! I explained my plight for a scent. I asked questions. I shared with her my history- what I wore, what I liked, and what a pain-in-the-ass it is to have a chemical salesman for a husband who in a split second will reduce a scent that I dearly love into a common ordinary item forever ending my love affair without a second thought to the absolute devastation of the loss of a carefully formulated and marketed scent with an even cooler name that I, up to that point, thought I could wear everyday for the rest of my life. Ohhhh!!!!

So what does this perfume expert offer me?!? The MOST popular scent of the moment!!! Lola by Marc Jacobs. Seriously? She is a woman first of all who second of all sells perfume to fellow women. Doesn't she know that a perfume is supposed to be special and personal? It sets a woman apart from her counterparts. That pricey composition of notes and such intimately blending with each individual woman's unique body chemistry? Hello? The most popular scent huh? Despite being appalled and pissed at her suggestion, I try it. I let my bloodhound sample it. I'm waiting for another playdough incident. Instead I get, "licorice". Sure enough, Lola does smell exactly like licorice. We leave and I'm relieved that I won't be smelling like every other woman in America.

Still Christmas shopping weeks later, we head into Anthropologie to buy a gift for my sister-in-law. Anthropologie is such a fun store. We had to look at everything twice. The displays are gorgeous and inspiring. I find the matryoshka measuring cup dolls for Cory, and then we leave the kitchen section and find ourselves in the bedroom area. There, destiny was waiting for us. The timing was finally right. Unbeknownst to me, what I had been searching for, yet at that moment, wasn't even thinking about, was right there.

Eric actually found it. He picked it up, smelled it, said it was the one. THAT simple. He had me sample it. I think the whole thing went down in mere seconds. No thinking. No double takes. No goofy remarks. I left Anthropologie with MY scent. Especially made for me (in my mind at least).

It is a small, simple, square glass bottle with a picture on the inside. Completely unassuming. Not the seductive red, black, and gold bottles of some of my previous favorites. What is it? The answer to my lengthy search is French Kiss No. 15 Parfum made by Tokyomilk. Tokyomilk's description reads, "A decidedly different collection of brilliantly paired fragrance notes housed in an alluring glass bottle decorated with an image of the most romantic of monuments." The ingredient list for "The sweetest kiss": mandarin, tuberose, gardenia, and vetiver-crushed and distilled. And that, "...image of the most romantic monuments"? The Eiffel Tower of course! My Christmas wish for the perfect perfume came true!