J&E Atkinson ~ Mirra Mirra (From the I Coloniali Line)
Ach, am I ever tired. We are moving to a new house! Yay! Only it’s time consuming, and the seller’s realtor tried to pull a fast one on us at the last minute, which needless to say added to our stress levels and the legal forms we had to fill out. I am no longer going to be an Oregonian (wah!) and will become a Washingtonian (yay?) We’re pulling up stakes and heading across the Columbia River, so I’m not going too far thankfully, and shall remain in the Pacific Northwest. The picture was not taken today, but Monday, when the sky was so nice and clear. It’s a shot across the Columbia River facing east towards Mt. Hood. Forgive the lousy image quality, as I’ve only got a cheap 2 megapixel camera, but you can click on it to see it enlarged.
To soothe my nerves I dug out my Mirra Mirra by J&E Atkinsons from their I Coloniali line. Like their other scents I’ve tried, it too is quite linear in composition. The relaxing scent of myrrh is also something I really dig on bad allergy days, and with all this sunshine we’ve been having lately, my seasonal allergies have really kicked into overdrive. Achoo! Woody intonations, and the piquant scent of sticky pine needles intermingle over the top of the myrrh. A deep vanilla base softens and slightly sweetens the overall effect, and while I know that sometimes myrrh can be vanillic, I perceive it as a seperate element. I am guessing that even if the myrrh note they used was vanillic already, they almost certainly bumped it up with an added dose of the stuff. I find it a calming scent, one that almost induces me to sleep, such is its soothing power. Mirra Mirra is becoming increasingly hard to find here in the States, and the only place I can find at this moment still selling it online anymore is via European Bath Essentials through Amazon.com and PopeHair. Occasionally some I Coloniali items do come up on eBay as well, but not regularly.
For an up to the minute list of bloggers that will be fundraising for Mother’s Day, please go to benevolentblogging.com, or read below, please:
Perfumery will be raising money for FINCA International. Andy Tauer will be making a one dollar donation for every comment left on his blog. Excitingly, he is also being generous enough to hold a random drawing to win one of his exquisite perfumes, your choice of either le Maroc pour elle (50 ml) or the L’air du désert marocain (100 ml) should you be the lucky soul whose name is drawn. If you are already a commenter there, please stop by, and if you are new to his blog, come by say “hi!” and discover his lovely words and gorgeous perfumes.
March and Patty from Peppermint Patty’s Perfume Posse will be raising money for Orphan Foundation of America on Mother’s Day. These two lovely perfume-nuts have style, brains, and are raucously fun to read. Please drop in whether you are a stranger they just haven’t met yet or one of their dedicated readers on Mother’s Day to give them a big howdy!
Perfume-Smellin’ Things is run by Marina, who writes so elegantly you would swear some of her perfume reviews are poetry. Her honest and graceful reviews have already won her a loyal readership, and if you are new to her you’ll find much to like, and if you already love her writing then I’m just preaching to the choir, ain’t I? Marina will be fundraising for Orphan Foundation of America on May 14th.
Urban Chick zanily and breezily discusses topics ranging from the profound (shoes) to the profane (life.) She’s so witty it is almost scary, and she regularly makes her readers laugh until they cry. Please be sure to check out her list of regularly changing taglines, which are simply hilarious. She will be making a donation of £1 per comment to the UK based charity Womankind Worldwide for the date of May 12th rather than the 14th, since she will be out of town on that day.
Scentzilla is my blog, which pretty much details my ever-growing addiction to fragrances. I’m a dork, what can I say? I will be donating one dollar for every comment left on the special Mother’s Day post I will make on my blog to FINCA International. I hope you will stop by to say hi whether you are new to Scentzilla, or already a reader.
A big THANK YOU to everyone who has signed up to participate thus far! If I have missed your email or notification with this post, don’t worry, I will be regularly updating this page!
April 27th, 2006 at 5:37 am
Sorry for the bump in the road on your move, Katie - real estate transactions are always a hassle. Enjoy your new place and plant a garden of fragrant stuff ;-)
I’ll be sure to visit the blogs on Mother’s Day, and thanks for promoting this so vigorously.
April 27th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Benevolent blogging is an excellent idea, and I’ll be all over the place on Mother’s day! Good luck on completing your move (it wouldn’t be a real estate transaction if it went all nice & smooth)! And thanks for the samples, again. My morningphobe daughter has been coaxed out of bed recently with the promise of a spritz of Aromarine!
April 27th, 2006 at 8:47 am
Dear Katie,
Sorry I haven’t responded yet, but I plan to participate on Legerdenez, and will donate a dollar for every comment. I plan to have a perfume giveaway of some sort as well. TBA.
April 27th, 2006 at 8:55 am
Congratulations on your move! What a gorgeous view that is. Starting to gain a greater appreciation for our mountainous scenery. As an Alaskan kid I was totally oblivious.
April 27th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Hey, congrats on your move K! What a stunning picture…I would kill to live within walking distance of a view like that. Hope the rest of the process will go smoothly.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:16 am
Hey, I am wearing this right now! Thanks!! :-) I am so happy for you with your new digs.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Anya, thanks, and thanks - I hope to see you all over the blogiverse on Mother’s Day! :)
sybil, thank you, and once again you are of course quite welcome, and how cool that your daughter is enamored of the Cola as well!
Cait, no worries, I got your email, and have added you to the list! Thank you so much. It’s kind of funny how much we take for granted our usual surroundings sometimes, forgetting that it might be more than just ordinary to others. I look at various photos from around Alaska and my breath is taken away. There’s so much beauty there.
Robin, I’ve got a nice clean view of Mt. Hood from looking down the street in the new front yard. Which is cool, since where we live currently has the view obscured by big tall trees and other buttes. Thank you for the good wishes - I hope it goes smoothly, too.
March, hope you’re enjoying it! It’s not my fave of the Atkinsons, but I still like it quite a bit. Sooooooo relaxing.
April 30th, 2006 at 4:22 am
How much do you pay for I Coloniali generally?
Just out of curiosity…
I’m Italian, but I suppose that shipping is fare more expensive than the items themselves…
April 30th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
The I Coloniali line is a mid-range line here in the States: For example, I think I paid like $35 or $40 for my Mirra Mirra (I do not remember exactly anymore.) I’d imagine it’s less expensive in Europe? It’s not impossible to find in the US, just rather tricky to find, unfortunately.
April 30th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Yes it is a bit less expensive. If you think that freight expenses are affordable feel free to ask ;P
A factory of the Bracco group (that owned the Da Silva which actually manufactered products for Ferré, Hanorah, Atkinsons, Byblos and so on) was not too far from where I live: some years ago you could have all the products of these “families” cheap, and all the damaged products dirty cheap if compared with their official price (of course if you had the chance to visit their internal “market”).
My sister in law liked the Byblos stuff and we were flooding her with body creams.
I found them good, I have a special penchant for I coloniali - tender water with China peony and the one with Javanese Cananga. Maybe not the perfumes of my life, however very nice
But probably not everybody had my same tastes: they were losing money, so Bracco sold and the factory is shutting by now. It is very sad because they employed mostly women (more than 100), so none actually cares.
Now the I Coloniali line belongs to Cosmopolitan Cosmetics I think…
I usually read your blog with pleasure, but I quite never leave a comment. It was so strange to find something about a line produced here nearby, with a bit sad story(a lot of factories are closing here, near the Da Silva there was the Carrera, producing jeans, and the list could go on for a while…).
May 1st, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Oh I’m just nuts about the Javanese Cananga one too! Thus far it’s my hands down fave, and actually, one of my “regular perfumes” in the rotation of ones that I wear frequently.
How terrible that no cares about that - if I understand you correctly, they don’t care because its mostly women who were employed there? How wretched.
I was under the impression that Atkinsons was owned by Proctor & Gamble, but is Bracco the company that actually manufactured the line? Sorry to bother you with questions, it’s just hard to find information about the I Coloniali line here. I’ll have to look up Cosmopolitan Cosmetics and see what I can find out about them.
Thanks for the insights, spin!