Tilda Swinton smells like curry

I'm slowly trying to smell my way through the Etat Libre d'Orange perfume collection. So far I've tested perfumes in a very ad hoc way. I've reached my hand into the paper bag and worn whatever I picked.

Photo: Glen Luchford for Dazed & Confused Magazine, found on Tumblr

Today the pick fell on Like This. Tilda Swinton's ELdO-perfume. I love Tilda. Oh my gosh; I'd totally pay good money for her bottled up. BUT. The perfume: Not. So. Much.

Source: www.shoppingblog.com

Ough, what a total disaster. It opened so beautifully: Lovely fresh cut ginger, sweet tangy tangerine, round pumpkin and a flutter of heliotrope... Now, after a couple of hours, all I get is pumpkin sweetness and curry. Yes, curry. Damn you Immortelle! You are supposed to be caramelly and sweet. You're supposed to be "one of the most fragrant plants, which contributes to giving the Corsican “maquis” its characteristic perfume. Immortelle produces a fascinating, rich, multi-layered, sexy, desireable, satisfying aroma." But not satisfying as an Indian meal of curry and Naan. I know that you are mentioned to have a kind of curry note, but did that particular note have to be so prominent on my skin? Why not focus the scent projection on the ginger, the  pumpkin and the heliotrope (oh, heliotrope, how I love thee!)?

I thought Tilda and I would be like this *crosses index and long finger*. Not only because she is drop-dead-beautiful, but also because of ther pride-flag-stunt in Russia. And it seemed so promising at the start, but you have proven yourself to be a wolf in a sheep's skin, Tilda. Or some sort of defiant dish thought up in Heston Blumenthal's insane/genious mind.

Source: Twitter/ElioIannacci

But you can totally make it up to me though. You could, say, take me out to dinner or something....As long as it's not Indian.

A scented return

I’m sorry little lovelies, I just could not bring myself to blog during the last busy weeks of work before vacation, and to be completely honest, blogging did not have a top-spot on my prio-list during vacation either. But now. Now. Now I have time, energy, and things to write about. I think that this fall will focus a lot on my interest in perfumes.

All my interests fluctuate heavily. I had a period of obsession with plants and growing things in the spring (this obsession is still going strong now with my balcony-grown produce ripening and all) and then a period of great interest in sewing in the beginning of summer; so much that I finally took my sewing machine to the store to have it serviced. Alas, it’s been gone all summer now. So, I turned my interests to another obsession of mine: scents. I am by no means a die-hard, fortune-spending, sample-hoarding kind of perfume lover, but I’ve built myself quite a collection and I envision it growing. But, slowly, and mainly in the samples section (buying whole bottles is not only expensive, but it takes up a heck load of space!)

I recently ordered a sampler set of (27!!) perfumes from Etat Libre d’Orange and another sampler set from Lalique (with 10 perfumes) and they arrived yesterday! OH JOY! However, the joy did not go unblackened for long because as I opened ripped open the package from the UK I sensed a scent. A lovely, sweet scent with leathery undertones… At first I was hopeful that it might just be a slightly leaky sample, which is not impossible. I first opened tore up the Lalique package; all the samples were intact, the scent was not coming from there. Then I went on to the brown paper bag with the “Smelling is believing”-text on from ELdO, poured out the little plastic packets with mini-leaflets and 1,5 ml samples for each perfume on my bed and ruffled through them when I found the culprit.TOM of Finland had burst! Oh the sorrow! The disdain for the stupid, incompetent person who packed my package in such a way that ToF could not last all the way from the UK to Sweden! It was a sad, sad event.

However, life goes on I guess. Today I’m wearing Dangerous Complicity (I totally chose it by perfume lottery: reached my hand into the bag and wore whatever I picked. So happy I didn’t happen to pick Secretions Magnifiques…) which has been a sweet woodsy note with something slightly tart/cool/sharp in the background on my skin. Could it be the jasmine? Or the famed Chinese Osmanthus? I am going to experiment with amounts on my skin. I believe I was a little on the stingy side this morning. How do you usually dose your perfume application when you have non-spray sample vials?

Less than three for more than three!

What is that cryptical blog entry title you might wonder. Well, "Less than three = <3 = heart/love for more than three (years)", which is the case with me and Mr Banjodjango. Three years. I can't believe how fast time flies. I love you I love you I love you.

The Great Gatsby Premiere Party

Hellu dearies!

Remember I told you about attending the Great Gatsby Premiere Party here in Sweden? Well, I totally did not manage to take any good photos. But lucky for me the beautiful Jessica Silversaga did! I wore a lovely 20s flapper dress in blue lace that I found at a flea market and it was a ridiculous steal. Some minor tending to a little hole, but apart from that it was in perfect condition. With it I wore my most expensive impulse shopping item ever: my golden Gucci Stilettos. My hair was a mess, but good news for messy curls is: the "invisible" hairnet (aka the hair-colored thin hairnet).

One piece of input to the event coordinators: Why were you so adamant about not mixing in some swing music from the era with the modern thump-thump-thump?! You wanted a 20s themed party with a Gatsby-esque flair. We were basically offering to give you a free dance performance with dancing from the era if only you would have let the (very willing) DJs play something else than main stream disco music. Such a pity.

Anyway, all in all, it was a really good party, and there was plenty of Moët & Chandon to be had. Yum yum yum.

Were any of you there? Did you enjoy yourselves? Wouldn't you have just loved to see some swing dancing as well as the great burlesque performances by the Blackbird Burlesque Cabaret who were there performing and enticing the audience? Sad I got no photos...




Why are you still here? Head on over to peruse Jessicas photos!

On past lives, changing lives and moving your body

Many years ago, in a faraway reality I tended a bloggy-wog called ”Spark-SDFHG – the (mis?)adventures of one trying to live by the rules of ‘hurtigheten’”. It is long-ago taken down and is now only readable by myself as a kind of reminder of the past and the person I was in another chapter in my life. That is not to say that each chapter prompts a reinvention, but let’s face it, we all try to better ourselves from time to time, moving along the road of life with little inkling as to when the next bold turn will come.

The other day I was reading a Swedish blog where the blogger has recently found a sort of holy grail by the means of exercise and some of her readers have had the audacity to criticize her for “not being the same anymore” just because she happens to write a little bit more about how great it feels for her to move her body, and little bit less (but by no means excluding) about vintage thrifting, DIY and cooking. I believe that this is the same response that Fleur got when she found her totally unexpected love for running (which I, by the way, think is RAD and I’m SOOO jealous I never seem to get over that “ough-I-hate-this-so-much-hurdle” and into runner’s high) and shared that aspect of her life on her blog.

Why is it so hard to come to terms about the fact that there are real people behind the words you read? People who are also travelling along the road of life and meeting unexpected twists and turns and interests and holy grails along the way. Are you the same person you were five years ago? I’m certainly not. Why would you expect that of a blogger that you happen to follow? If you want to read something that is static, read an encyclopedia (I’m not bashing down on encyclopedias here, I love them and have been known to read them cover to cover, for the fun of it).

All this talk of exercise and of changing interests made me think of my old blog. About something I named “the Hurtigheten Regime”. Because, I for one, was inspired by UnderbaraClara and her writing about how she found her way back to exercising and how great it makes her feel. And not to mention how much she manages to get done thanks to the great amount of energy and focus that exercise gives. I used to feel that too. Somewhere along the road I dropped off. But I’m willing to stretch myself uncomfortably for a while to get there because it is so worth it; that is really what hurtigheten is all about.

Question is, will you stick around for it?

YOLO (LOL)

I am old. Or at least I feel old when I no longer am up to speed on the lingo the kids are using these days. I only learnt this weekend what YOLO means. I feel like that mother made famous on the interwebs for thinking LOL means “Lots of Love” and thus wrote LOL in text message about a close relative’s death. (LOL, just to be clear, means “Laughing out loud” and is the product of chatty youngsters wanting to express as much as possible in as few letters as possible (because typing out full words is too much of an effort and totally grown-up-boring-like; yes, I was that kid).

Anyway, having learnt now what YOLO means (after having felt totally like a loser for not being able to make it out myself) I am eager to live by it so that I too can allow myself that extra cookie because YOLO! Or buy those super expensive but SO pretty sunglasses because YOLO! Or those Manhattan heel fully fashioned stockings because….you get it right?

Ok, no, that was lies. I haven’t got the money put away for that yet, but I do have a massage appointment at 11, because YOLO!

ps. Yesterday we went donned our best flapper outfits and headed to the Premier Party of The Great Gatsby at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm. I honestly have not had that much Moët & Chandon in one evening, ever. Not even on new years. It was, needless to say, FANTABULISTIC. Were any of you there? Will you go see the movie?

Tie-sty dinner with friends

Last weekend was Sugar Hill Weekend in Stockholm. It is an amazing Full Weekend Event with music, shopping, dancing, performances etc from the 1920-1950s era (with focus on the 1930-1940s). My friends Madelin, Josefin and Sandra organized it and it took place in a fantastic venue called Södra Teatern which used to be just a theatre for a long time, then happened on bad times and was used as a food storing facility (yeah, I KNOW, right?!) and have now been turned into a fantastic stage for international music and performing arts.

Christopher and I took the chance to clean out our wardrobes (make space for more) to sell at the vintage market at Sugar Hill and after the market we headed out to dinner at a close by Italian restaurant. If you think we're particularly handsome in the photo above it must be because of our vintage ties (Christopher's a collector and kindly lended both Åsa and me a tie each; Lars had is own.) I'd gladly wear ties more often, it's just difficult finding good button down shirts for them, in good ladies sizes. The search goes on!

Ta ta!