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Suzanne’s Perfume Journal

Click on Links to Previous Posts, below

A Conversation on Arabie

A More Affordable Olfactionary

Amouage Dia (pour femme)

Amouage Epic Woman

Amouage Gold

Amouage Jubilation 25

Amouage Lyric Woman

Amouage Tribute

Amouage Ubar

Aroma M Geisha Rouge

Ava Luxe Café Noir

Best of 2009

Bond No. 9 Brooklyn

Bond No. 9 New Haarlem

Capote, Truman & Evening in Paris

Caron French Cancan

Caron Parfum Sacre

Caron Tabac Blond

Caron Tubereuse

Caron Yatagan

Chanel 31 Rue Cambon

Chanel Bel Respiro

Chanel Chance

Chanel Coromandel

Chanel Egoiste

Chanel No. 5 (vintage)

Chanel No. 22

Chantilly Dusting Powder

Comme des Garcons LUXE Champaca

Comme des Garcons Series 7 Sweet Nomad Tea

Coty Ambre Antique

Coty Chypre

Creed Acqua Fiorentina

Creed Fleurs de Bulgarie

DSH Perfumes Quinacridone Violet

Deneuve

Donna Karan Black Cashmere

Estee Lauder Private Collection

Estee Lauder Private Collection Jasmine White Moss

Favorite Fall Fragrances

Fragrances for Sweden

Frederic Malle Angeliques Sous La Pluie

Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentrée

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monsieur

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese

Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose

Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie

Frederic Malle Une Rose

Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel

Gucci L'Arte di Gucci

Guerlain Jicky

Guerlain Parure

Guerlain Vega

Happy Solstice

Hermes 24, Faubourg

Hermes Caleche (vintage)

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

Hermes Hiris

Histoires de Parfums 1740

Histoires de Parfums 1828

Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette

Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine

How I Store Decants

In Memory (w/mention of Lanvin Arpege)

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles

Jean Patou 1000

Juliet by Juliet Stewart

Kenzo Jungle l’Elephant

L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse

L'Artisan Parfumeur Orchidee Blanche

L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer

L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

La Via del Profumo Balsamo Della Mecca

Le Labo Patchouli 24

Little Lists

Lorenzo Villoresi Yerbamate

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Eau des Iles

Message In A Bottle 

Miscellany 

Molinard Habanita

Mona Di Orio Nuit Noire

Montale Black Aoud

Montale Boise Vanille

Montale Intense Tiare

Montale Patchouli Leaves

More Roses (rose cookie recipe)

My Heart Has Skipped A Beat (summer smells)

My Perfumes Have Theme Songs

Nasomatto China White

Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline

Ormonde Jayne Frangipani

Ormonde Jayne Perfumery Ormonde Woman

Oscar de la Renta Oscar for Men

Parfum d'Empire 3 Fleurs

Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba

Parfums de Nicolai Sacrebleu

Parfums DelRae Amoureuse

Parfums Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars

Pascal Morabito Or Black 

Perfume Quotes - The English Patient

Profumum Roma Acqua Viva

Profumum Roma D'Ambrosia

Puredistance I

Recipe for Socca

Robert Piguet Fracas

Robert Piguet Visa

Sarah Horowitz Parfums' Joy Comes From Within & Beauty Comes From Within

Scented Reading

Scentuous Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Serge Lutens Arabie

Serge Lutens Chêne

Serge Lutens Chergui

Serge Lutens Five O’Clock Au Gingembre

Serge Lutens Miel de Bois

Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle

Serge Lutens Un Lys

Snow Days

Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure

Sonoma Scent Studio Jour Ensoleille

S-Perfume 100% Love {More}

Sweden Is For Lovers

T is for Taxes

Tauer Perfumes: Incense Extrême, Incense Rosé, Lonestar Memories, & Reverie au Jardin

Tauer Perfumes Vetiver Dance

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Intimacy of Scent

Thoughts of a Perfume Collector

Tightly

Unlocking an Unknown: Webber Parfum 6T

Vero Profumo Kiki, Onda, and Rubj

Viktor & Rolfe Flowerbomb

What I’m Lovin’ Now

Yves Saint Laurent Nu

SUN MOON STARS…BEST LEFT TO NATURE

 

It takes me forever to get around to smelling samples—I’ll admit I’m not a dedicated perfumista in that regard.  I’d rather take a week with a new perfume, study it from every angle and at various times of the day, like an impressionist painter; psychoanalyze it like Freud, determining what associations to my life I can draw to it; and follow those associations down the rabbit hole like Alice in Wonderland.  And most of the time, I would prefer to jump through those analytical hoops with the perfumes already in my collection, because I feel I don’t have time enough to spend with each of those lovelies as it is.  This might sound crazy to the perfume newbie, but it’s true: once you start collecting a good many fragrances, you’ll find yourself feeling a bit guilty towards that part of your collection you’re neglecting simply because there are not enough days in the month to give them equal face-time.

 

There is the additional problem that, for every sample of something wonderful I receive, there are the samples I can almost predict will be truly awful, even before opening them.  I’m not referring to the niche-fragrance samples that come from Lucky Scent or Aedes, but rather the mainstream-fragrance samples that are included with purchases from some of the online discounters or department stores.  And I don’t mean to sound so cranky, because I do love the perfume discounters (where else would I find Black Cashmere these days?) and I do love the fact that they appreciate my business enough to include samples.  I suppose I’m just cranky with myself for not having had the common sense to throw away or swap away my ginormous sample of Sun Moon Stars.  Especially when I already know it’s a mass-market fragrance formulated by perfumer Sophia Grosjman, who, talented and lovely as she is, with legions of perfume fans who will no doubt hate me after this post, creates perfumes that are polar opposite my tastes.  (My idea of perfume hell is to be stuck in an elevator with someone wearing Lancôme Trésor, which has to be Ms. Grosjman’s best-selling perfume ever, because I have smelled it in every single office building I’ve ever worked in.  Ditto for many of her other mainstream scents.  On the other hand, I do very much enjoy the fragrance 100% Love {More} that she created for the über-niche S-Perfume label.)

 

Sun Moon Stars was launched in 1994 for parfums Karl Lagerfeld, but is now discontinued.   A floral-oriental, it has top notes of freesia, water lily and rose; heart notes of heliotrope, jasmine, orange blossom and narcissus; and base notes of sandalwood, amber and musk.  If I had to describe it in one sentence, I’d say it reminds me of Jean Patou Joy perfume combined with a heavy dose of either Final Net hairspray or DEET bug spray.  In other words, the aroma of heavy florals mixed with something that is decidedly chemical or synthetic smelling.  For me, the only association I can make between the fragrance and its name is that it does have a very inky smell that could represent the night sky, but it’s a sky devoid of any heavenly constellations.  I waited for the heliotrope, jasmine, and orange flower notes to appear out of the black and add a twinkle of their normal warmth and sweetness, but alas, the black hole swallowed and rendered them practically unrecognizable.  After an hour, I couldn’t take it any more and decided to dive into my bathtub and scrub this scent—no easy feat.  About the only thing that Sun Moon Stars has going for it that reminds me of celestial bodies is the gravitational force that binds its molecules to my skin.

 

Now if you happen to be a fan of this scent, that’s awesome.  May it rock your world.  And if I’ve offended you with this grumpy review, well, feel free to thumb your nose at me and say, “What does she know?  She wears Chance!”   (Which is true.  Aren’t you glad I’m not in an elevator with you, but in my own little galaxy, far, far away?)

Image , top, is an illusion created with Photoshop (by whom, I don't know), using a photo of Hawaii's crescent moon-shaped volcanic crater, Molokini.  In other words, it is a photo of a real island juxtaposed next to a fake one (the star-shaped island being the fake, of course).

Posted by Suzanne Keller, 7/4/2008.