Substitute Sniffer
Ina’s nose is completely out of commission, so congested by this nasty bug that she didn’t know how she could write a post tonight. Of her five senses, the one she needs most to run this blog has betrayed her, leaving her in a sad, fragrance-free world, where perfumes have lost their essence, and rich, dark chocolate tastes like mush.
Enter the husband! Who better to chivalrously save his wife’s perfume blog than the guy who thinks every scent smells like watermelon or raspberries? If smell were one of the senses upon which we depended to make our way safely through the world — like sight or hearing — my helping Ina and her impaired olfactory system along would amount to the blind leading the blind. You perfumaniacs seem like nice people, but I haven’t the faintest clue what you — or my wife — are talking about half the time. I’ve taken a stab at reading some of the perfume blogs, before and after Aromascope came on the scene, and it never takes long before I get the same feeling as when I’m caught in the middle of a rapid-fire conversation between Ina and her family. In case you weren’t aware, they’re Russian. I’m just an American kid from the suburbs who doesn’t remember any high school Spanish.
All of that aside, I will do my best to review the fragrance Ina would have tonight, had she not lost her senses (or one of them, anyway): Kolnisch Juchten by Parfums Regence. A common phrase heard when Ina has me smell something is “That reminds me of something,” but I can rarely place what it is. This one clearly puts me in the North Woods of Minnesota, sitting in front of a birch-wood fire as I did on many a cool evening in the summers of my childhood. Others without a similar connection might not get this, but it’s a very comforting smell for me, and fitting since we’re heading up there this weekend. I’ve been told it also has leather notes, which I’m picking up. It seems old to me, and something about it brings to mind my grandfather’s den, full of leather-bound books left dusty and unused for years after his death. As I remember it — and it has been over twenty years — it was a shadowy room with lots of dark wood, what seemed like a giant, monolithic desk, and all the trappings of an intellectual masculinity that is rare in today’s world.
I just read Marina’s post on Kolnisch Juchten and am gratified to see I wasn’t completely off the mark in my perceptions. Interesting that it is a very old fragrance. We may differ on my last observation, though. It could just be the cabin on my mind, but the drydown really does give me the distinct impression of lake water, with just a slight hint of fish!
Image source: www.galen-frysinger.com
16 comments July 10th, 2006