Scentzilla!

Lulu Guinness ~ Cast a Spell and Lulu Guiness

I’m feeling a tad surly today, so please forgive my tone if I’m being overly persnickety. Yesterday I finally got around to trying Lulu Guinness’ Cast a Spell. This, even after reading Marina’s review at Perfume-Smellin’ Things and I knew it wasn’t going to my thing. I am an idiot. But that bottle freaking got to me - I mean, seriously, how is it NOT adorable? Worse, I didn’t even use a smelling strip - right onto my skin it went, like I hadn’t a care in the world as to how I used that sort of prime real estate. What to say? It’s fruity, woody, vanillic, yadda, yadda, yadda…. If anything, it reminded me of CK Euphoria. Which is also yadda, yadda, yadda. The blurb at Sephora reads, “Inspired by fairy tales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, Cast a Spell is infused with a touch of wickedness, and glittery, frosted, enchanted forests, magic love potions, the richness of Baroque art, and the dance between light and dark, coolness and warmth.” If it was inspired by the tales of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, then they are not the twisted but magical Grimm brothers’ versions I grew up reading. Oh, no. Cast a Spell was given the full on “Bibbity Bobbity Boo” schmaltz treatment. Which is fine. I mean, that IS some people’s thing. I just couldn’t find any real villians or wickedness in the scent, and I like my fairy tales with at least a little flash of danger in them. You can read the full listing of notes at Sephora.

The eponymous scent by Lulu Guinness (simply called Lulu Guiness) is another story, and a much better one. It’s not a fairy tale, it’s just a brief ode to the ephemeral beauty of fresh-cut bouquets. Lily and lily of the valley, rose water, and a delightfully purty sweet pea note are the primary players in it. I truly adore its sweet pea note especially. The effect is so vivid, and so fresh, and I wish, oh how I wish, it worked better on me. The fragrance disappointingly begins to fall flat on my skin after a while, and the bright effect is lost all too soon. GAH! And it starts out so pretty! I am not the only person who suffers that problem, but it does not happen to everyone. I actually think this works really well on folks who have slightly drier skin than mine. Here’s another take on it at ¡Ombligo!. If spring hasn’t sprung yet where you live, Lulu Guinness might be a nice vibrant way to remind yourself it will soon enough. I think this may be discontinued (I haven’t heard anything one way or the other, it’s just getting less common is why I say that) but you can pick up for a song on the various discount sites or eBay if you shop around.

Links:

I kept meaning to link to some of the latest podcasts from Lipgloss and Laptops, but then kept forgetting. (See the posts below about me and my hinky memory. Sigh.) For the perfume lover, I particularly recommend episode #3 , aka part one of The Perfume Chronicals. You might also enjoy #4, which is mostly about blush, but Airdrie and Kerry Anne, the charmingly down-to-earth hosts, also talk about some perfume versions of other beauty products, which are helpfully listed here at the blog as well. The links are to the blog, not the podcast itself, but details on downloading the podcasts abound in their sidebar. iTunes has proven to be the easiest way for me (don’t worry, it’s free!) There’s a number of beauty podcasts right now, but it’s my fave, partly because the audio quality is superb, and mostly because it’s done in such a fun conversational style and the hosts’ sense of humor shines right through. They crack me up.

Fun with Captioning
Also, just for kicks, head on over to Victoria’s Own, where she’s recently posted some photos of sculptures she took in Paris. I feel irresistbly compelled to caption them for no good reason at all, and I just KNOW other people can come up with something way better than my weak efforts. There’s this one and this one that she’s posted most recently.

Image top from disney.go.com. Second image is one I adapted from an Early American floral silhouette from Dover royalty-free images.