FRAGRANCES & HIPPIE TRAIL

"The desert is unpredictable, enigmatic. One minute you will be smelling dust. The next, the desert can smell just like the rain." (Gary Nabham - The Desert Smells Like the Rain)

Continuing the journey where you can see a never ending horizon and feel the breeze of freedom on the face I will share a secret with you. Although I am a super urban person, I have two passions - taking a road challenge and deserts.  

Believe it or not my dream trip is to hit the road on a Hippie Trail. 

For those of you who are not familiar with the Hippie Trail or The Overland we need to go back in time. It was journeys that youngsters took during the 60's and early 70's, from Europe to India, Nepal and beyond, usually in an old Volkswagen vain, by train, by bus or hitchhiking. 7.000 miles in the lowest budget possible, meeting other adventurers  and interacting with locals at each stop.  

Hippies trails were taken so young people could scape from conventional lifestyles, feel the freedom, be enlighten, "go native" (as in be naked and natural) and smoke weed. A lot of weed. 

The classic hippie trail ended in 1979 when the Slamic Revolution in Iran and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Russians closed the overland route to western travellers.

Alternative tourism is my thing. Feeling the wind on my face and driving long hours to meet the horizon is also me. I would never take a trip on a cruise or with those annoying tourist guides. I like to mingle with locals, take my time, sip a cup of their coffee and listen to their stories. To know a country is to know the people, the culture.

But I am no hippie. I like to shower and eat good food. I would never think of Afghanistan...I have taken trips to deserts in Israel thou. 

For your surprise I was always the one driving the car or the van. I drove along the Incense Trail, the Negev, the Judaean desert...so beautiful, but so f.hot. One have weird experiences such as mirages and other visions. The heat simply takes over your brain and you literally trip out from it... 

The hippie style dream trail to me would be cross the entire USA in an a van, specially and conquer its deserts. I dream of sitting nowhere in the desert, listening to good music and just do nothing besides watching the sundown.

I would simply love to take route 66; smell creosotes in the Mojave desert on route 247; smell the green watery scent of cactuses; the mushroom-y odor of Joshua trees blooming; the herbaceous scent of sage, the resinous woody christmas-y smell of pine; the earthy, mineral and dusty smell of sand and dirt... 

Well, my dream will not come true in the near future so I decided to put up a list list of fragrances that best describe the smells of the desert and get us in the Hippie vintage adventurous mood. I will be an olfactory journey or a Scent journal of a Hippie Trail.

Needless to say that sandalwood and patchouli were the favs of hippies. It is said that hippies used patchuli to desguise the smell of marijuana and the BO and sour body odors because they didn't take showers. 

Although I am not into hippie scents, patchouli is one of my most beloved scents after iris. Click on the link and you will have many fragrances reviews with all kids of patchouli based fragrances and a huge list of options!

If you want a complete hippie experience, be my guest with MALIN + GOETZ CANNABIS PERFUME OIL (Notes of fig, pepper, orange, lemon, sandalwood and patchouli).

For a original hippie patchouli fragrance of the 70's experience with ingredients of the overland you should try INOUBLIABLE ELIXIR PATCHOULI BY REMINISCENSE. Launched in the seventies, it was reissued in 2007.(Notes of virginian cedar, patchouli from Java, Haitian vetiver, Australian sandalwood, frankincense, vanilla from Madagascar, tonka, tolu and light musk.

Now you got yourself into the hippie mood, let's hit the road!

Our journey starts with LARREA EDP by LA CURIE, a fragrance inspired by the southwest rainstorms, where dust encounters rain. Notes of Chaparral, musk, petrichor, ozone, leather). Open the window and feel a whiff of desert there right into our noses! 

As we travel deeper into the desertic landscape we stop the car and start to explore the trails with EL COSMICO EDP by D.S & DURGA (notes of desert shrubs, desert pepper, pinyon pine, creosote, oak, khella, dry accord and shrub wax) and PURPLE SAGE by Perfumes of the Desert.

MOJAVE GHOST EDP  BY BYREDO is an ode to the ghost flower of the Mojave desert - the mohavea confertiflora.(Notes of ambrette, sapodilla, violet, sandalwood, magnolia, ambergris and cedar). Although many fragrance reviewers are saying it is not really special, I had to list it because it tells a desertic story in the Mojave landscape!

For cactus fragrances we have some options such as PRICKLY PEAR (Opuntia fragrance) and SAGUARO CACTUS (Saguaro fragrance) COLOGNES BY DEMETER.

Although FRIDA EDP BY ENVOYAGE is a fragrance celebrates artist Frida Kahlo it contains a very greeny watery scent of cactus that made me think of deserts when I first tried the sample sent by the perfumer. (Notes of apricot, watermelon, peach, lemon, fruity and green notes, tuberose, hibiscus, cactus flower, champaca, ylang, gardenia, jasmine, woody notes, sugar, oakmoss, aldehydes, myrrh, olibanum, copal, tobacco, green pepper, amber and musk. I also want to point out that while making the trip to the the Negev in Israel Shelly Waddington was always on my mind. Specially MAKEDA EDP, but mostly for historical reasons, but it is worth reading the review...

and if we are already going a little bit aside MOON DUST EDP by MIN NY is supposed to be inspired by the smell of the moon. If you read my review you will find out that there are conspiracies saying that actually it was a hoax shooted in the Nevada desert. So probably the smell of the moon is the same of the desert dirt... Worth reading, worth sampling.

Back to California, we will stop the van because it is getting dark and we are tired and hungry. It is time to sit around the fire, barbecue, tell spooky stories and wrap ourselves in a cozy Indian blanket that we bought when mingling with the locals. I can't think of a better olfative translation than Californian fragrance FIRESIDE INTENSE EDP BY SONOMA SCENT STUDIO ( click HERE for  a complete review)

More desert hippie trail experiences:

Joshua Tree Candle by Michael Aram

Mojave Soy Candle by P.F. Candle Co.

Tucson Verdure Soy Candle

Desert Queen Fragrances

Juniper Ridge Products

Desert Dancer oils

Petrichor natural perfume

I had to finish with a good laugh! Since hippies did not bath, I bring you the B.O. Wheel  !!

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NICHE PERFUMERY LECTURE/ CURSO DE PERFUMARIA DE NICHO

The lounge minutes before starting

This blogger has a long term relationship with CDCP - A center for diffusion of perfume knowledge in São Paulo, Brazil. Through this partnership I have been invited to be one of the jurors of the perfume award Atualidade Cosmética and I have been making brainstorming sessions with fragrance houses and marketing strategy projects.

This year they invited me to give a lecture on Niche Perfumery as part of the studies of perfume in a year round course they offer to professionals of the industry of perfumery and cosmetics.

It was a 3 hours lecture where I told them the history of Niche Perfumery; the concept of niche; the classifications of niche brands an niche perfumery as it is today and its future. We explored many brands and many different concepts in a whiff & think session.

It was very interesting to share ideas with marketing managers and perfumers and how professionals of the cosmetic industry and packing developers could use some of the ideas of niche perfumery in their businesses.

The brands presented were:

Annick Goutal, Jo Malone, Antonio Alessandria, Heeley, Yosh, Mona di Orio, Keiko Mecheri, Olivier Durbano, Maison Kurkdjian, Jovoy Paris, Victoria Minya, Editions de Parfums Frederique Malle, État Libre d’Orange, CB I Hate Perfume, S-Perfume, Blood Concept, A Lab on Fire, Juliette Has a Gun, Nasomatto, Histoires de Parfum, biehl parfumkunstwerke, Fueguia 1833, Olfactive Studio, Clive Christian, Creed, Xerjoff, Puredistance, Ormonde Jayne, Rancé , Creed, Penhaligons’, Fragonard, Maitre Parfumeur e Gantier,  Lubin, Santa Maria Novella, Farmacia SS. Annunziata dal 156, Les Parfums de Rosine, Le Labo, Byredo, Ego Facto, Bond Nº9, Mandy Aftel, Rich Hippie, Pacifica, Tsi-La, Rebel Intuitive Perfumerie, Strange Invisible Perfumes, Honoré des Prés, Neela Vermiere Creation, Kerosene, The Vagabond Prince, Aus Liebe zum Duft, Aedes de Venustas, Min NY, Comme de Garçons, Aesop, Costes, Ladurée, Les exclusifs, Van Cleef & Arpels Colection Extraordinaire, Tom Ford Private Blend, Estée Lauder Private Collection, Cartier Lês Heures de Parfum, Dior La Collection Privée.

Shops mentioned: 

Aedes de Venustas, Min NY, Campomarzio 70, Nose, Crème de La Crème, Hip-Nose; and websites luckyscent and  Aus Liebe zum Duft.

MOON DUST EDP BY MiN, MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY AND SPY MOVIES

Thinking that the United States has never sent men to the Moon seems absurd. To some specialists in the field, former astronauts, journalists, and a small percentage of people around the globe it is a supported, highly demonstrated and confirmed fact. Truth or not, these polemic theories are out there being debated over two decades and they have a name: MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY THEORIES. 

According to these theories NASA has hoaxed substantially the audio, video and photo shootings of the landing on the Moon by Apollo Missions, using the Nevada Area 51 to shoot the images. In fact, if you watch the video I posted you will see that it is fair to say that it is indeed a very polemic and complex subject that raises a lot of questions.

Credit: SG TROOP via youtube/FOX 

Another conflicting detail about the Moon landing is the smell of Moondust. In the Apollo Chronicles - The Mysterious Smell of The Moondust -  astronaut Gene Cernan from the mission Apollo 17 attests that the Moon surface is soft as snow, fine as flour, rough and abrasive as sandpaper, provokes hay fever and that smells like burnt gunpowder.

If Moondust was so abrasive as they scooped back then, how come it did not ruin the suits but it made some damage on the boots? How come it smells like gunpowder if it is made of silicon dioxide glass, magnesium, iron, calcium, olivine and pyroxene and modern gunpowder is a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin? 

Curiously, back to Earth, the "samples" taken did not have the smell of gunpowder at all! According to NASA the samples taken were placed in vacuum containers that somehow got unsealed and in contact with oxygen and that actually they can't really attest how much these samples were altered by this kind of exposure. 
A question raises here: is it possible that highly trained personnel in a mission that costs millions of dollars be that careless about handling, preserving and bringing samples back to Earth to study? If so, NASA should review its protocols...just saying...but back to scents:

Describing the smell of the Moon ISS astronaut Don Petit states in the NASA website: "Picture yourself in a desert on Earth, what do you smell? Nothing, until it rains. The air is suddenly filled with sweet, peaty odors."

Eugene Cernan covered by Moondust - "Lunar surface" in December of 1972.

Credit: NASA

How do you find the smell of Moondust outside the Moon? In Nevada desert after the rain? Or in the new collection of fragrances developed by Chad Murawczyk and Mindy Yang from MiN New York? 

MOON DUST EDP is one of the 11 scents of the collection or "chapters of visceral moments/volume I" (as the couple is calling them) and inspired by the very description of astronaut Gene Cernan. 

Notes of flint* stone, ozone, tobacco, benzoin and black musk were cleverly mixed to give an overall mineral effect in this wicked perfume! *Yes, you remembered The Flintsones! So did I!!

What MOON DUST EDP has in common with the Moon itself is not the smell of its dust, but the very Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories, in a sense that all is questionable, all is arguable AND CREATIVE. I explain: Mindy and Chad had their share of travels; they come from mixed backgrounds and cultures; they have their very personal way of seeing the world and to express their feelings and creativity in scents. They want you to open your heart and mind and have your very special way to relate to these fragrances. They tell a story at the very first whiff, but you can use your imagination and rewrite your own chapter! Actually they encourage you to do.

Moon Dust EDP by MiN New York - Scent Stories Vol. I

Photo credit: Min website

+ Q PERFUME BLOG IMPRESSIONS

MOON DUST EDP is bold, powerful, extremely sensual perfume with a profuse performance. You need to have an outstanding personality to support this one, otherwise you will be swallowed by it. So if you like intensity and well designed fragrances this fragrance is for you. 

MOON DUST EDP is a black shinning Arabian stallion running free in the wild and need to be domesticated. It will sprint into your nostrils and be carefully smoothed on your skin. Once that happens, it is beautifully developed.

It also has a serious animalic facet to it that it is at the same time both mineral & salty sweet & sensual. The opening has a very unconventional mineral -  wet & hot pavement-ish kind of scent, as if it rain just evaporated on a very hot pavement. I love it because it reminds me of my childhood at the beach, when after a long hot day, the rain falls, bringing up the mineral scent of the sand, pavement and the sea altogether.

It contains layers and layers of darkness with a beetroot undertone mixed with the smell of dry dirt that is very interesting. Here at the heart you will be enchanted by a strong cedar scent a bit rubbery and very unique.

The drydown is very sexy due to the black musk notes. Slightly powdery, sophisticated and also slightly sweeten by a note of benzoin.

If you tried Black Bulgari, Fire Intense by Sonoma, Lonestar Memories by Andy Tauer and even Encre Noir by Lalique or M/Mink By Byredo(all reviewed herein the past) you are ready for the MOON DUST EDP experience. In fact it would be a very interesting and complementing couple's scent experience to wear MOON DUST EDP (for him) paring with Black Bulgari (for her)!

Truth is smelling the perfume I was taken to a Bond movie scene at the beach - in Quantum of Solace - in which James Bond play by DanielCraig (my favorite Bond) comes out of the water and is seduced by actress Caterina Murino on a horse.

MOON DUST EDP of Scent Stories Vol by MiN New York takes you to a journey. If to the Moon, to a Bond movie,  or any other place, it is up to you to smell and discover. I did not write my own story. My memory took me to a journey involving secret agents that started a long time ago with Black Bulgari. My evoked journey was to a beach in the Bahamas where Craig shows his well built torso and Murino shows the sensuality of her body and the curves of a stallion. The script was already written.

But let's come back to the city because most of us lead an urban life. Being more practical what I can say about the fragrance is that I feel that is more suitable for the masculine gender; for colder days and to be better explored at night (due to its mysterious and seductive aura).

You can order a sample or purchase a full bottle at MiN New York Atelier at 117 Crosby Street, Soho, NYC  or online at: minnewyork.com

You can also visit the brand during PITTI FRAGRANZE 2014 from 12 to 14th this month - Booth #9

My next review of the Scent Stories is going to be Magic Circus EDP because it has also a common element with Moon Dust EDP - but that I will reveal in the future. Stick around to be surprised!

MiN NEW YORK - Um passeio olfativo por Nova Iorque III - SOHO

Nova Iorque vista de cima durante o evento Elements
crédito fotográfico: + Q Perfume Blog

Para quem acompanha o blog vai lembrar da minha viagem para Nova Iorque em 2012 - Passeio olfativo - parte I e passeio olfativo parte II. A verdade é que em NYC me sinto em casa e desde então já voltei para essa cidade maravilhosa algumas (muitas) vezes mais. Um dos meus lugares favoritos fora o High Line e o Village é o SOHO - pelos seu charme arquitetônico e as muitas lojas de perfumes.

O bairro é fashionista e já foi no passado mais charmoso da Ilha, porém atualmente muito frequentado por turistas. No verão é um pouco irritante ter que lutar por um lugarzinho na calçada (mas é melhor do que no inverno, época que muitas lojas não abrem as portas antes das duas da tarde).

Bom, seja qual for a estação do ano, prepare a carteira porque é lá que você realmente vai passar o cartão muuuuitas vezes! Lojas como a Molton Brown, Aesop, Osswald, Sabon, Le Labo, SMN, Bond Nº9, Fresh, Atelier Cologne estão espalhadas pelas ruas entre as marcas famosas Chanel, John Varvatos, Moncler, etc... e pontos gourmets como o famoso Balthazar e L'Ecole

bolos  L'Ecole

crédito fotográfico: + Q Perfume Blog

Se você está ainda aqui...(kkk) :

Parada obrigatória para todos amantes da perfumaria de nicho entre a Prince e Houston - mais precisamente na Crosby Street no número 117 é a loja/estúdio MiN NEW YORK.

MiN NEW YORK
crédito fotográfico: + Q Perfume Blog

Um  toque de elegância no meio desse bairro efervescente MiN NEW YORK é mais do que uma loja; é um ponto de encontro de blogueiros, donos de marcas, ávidos compradores de perfume, cientistas ligados ao estudo do olfato e curiosos (inclusive, dentro da loja existe um local especial para esses encontros). 

MiN NEW YORK

crédito fotográfico: + Q Perfume Blog

Sofás de couro e um bar olfativo são ocupados por frequentadores assíduos e visitantes ocasionais durante a semana ou em eventos promovidos por Mindy a curadora da loja.  Acolhedor e hipster como o dono e fundador Chad Murawczyk, o tb chamado estúdio possui além de perfumes, produtos para asseio pessoal (grooming em Inglês), velas e outros objetos de decoração e um serviço de marketing olfativo e de concierge olfativo*. Marcas como Mona di Orio, Puredistance, Heely, Keiko Mecheri, Jovoy e muitas outras de altíssima qualidade ou difíceis de encontrar estão expostas de uma forma lindíssima, em móveis chiquérrimos entre outros objetos de decoração.
Como era de se esperar Chad e Mindy ampliaram sua coleção de perfumes de nicho com o desenvolvimento de uma própria chamada de MiN NEW YORK SCENT STORIES, composta por 11 fragrâncias EDP diferenciadas, criadas e inspiradas a partir de memórias e conceitos olfativos da dupla. São elas Dune Road, Long Board, Dahab, Moon Dust, Momento, Barrel, Old School Bench, Magic Circus, Onsen, Shaman, e The Botanist.

MiN NEW YORK SCENT STORIES SAMPLES

crédito fotográfico: + Q Perfume Blog

Dando uma pequena prévia das avaliações que virão em breve: MAGIC CIRCUS EDP é uma fragrância gourmet com notas de nozes cristalizadas, algodão doce, caramelo, bergamota, pimenta rosa, ládano, gerânio, patchouli e lascas de madeira. Aqui não espere por uma fragrância do tipo Angel de TM ou Jeux de Peau de Serge Lutens. Este fica mais para o tipo de perfume que passeia por notas gustativas sem colocar o pé literalmente na cozinha - como Bois de Farine da L'Artisan. 

Fique antenado (a) para ler as resenhas dos perfumes da coleção!BJOSSSS