Showing posts with label inspirations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspirations. Show all posts

Monday, April 4, 2011

Inspiration Award



(Thank and link back to the person that awarded this to you)
Thanks to Blue Pearl, one of the dearest and most inspirational bloggers herself. I feel flattered and of course happy, who doesn't wish to be an inspiration ;-) Happy espacially because I am finding inspiration in my scented little world and so it is even more beautifull to inspire others too.

(Link posts by you and fellow bloggers that YOU find inspirational)
The bloggers I have choosen are generally inspirational to me so take a look to discover. As for myself I am generally inspirational too :P

(Give the award to 10 fellow bloggers)
The ten bloggers I have chosen are inspirational in different ways, each of them in an unique way:







Monday, March 14, 2011

Al Hajar al Aswad Khaltat by Abdul Samad Al Qurashi

Al Qurashi is one of the most exquisit arabian perfume houses. Just the visit of their shop is inspiring, captivating and gives you a feeling being in a nostalgic royal surrounding. Everyone who has visited their shop know what I am talking about. The interior is very classy and what I love most are the big glass perfume bottles overdrawn with gold and hand painted flowers where the pure oil perfumes are waiting to be decanted.

Al Hajar al Aswad I found thanks to blogger friend Alice. And it was one of the moments which really happen rarely but which I soo love. The first sniff and you are captured.


First of all it is a light oriental and above all sensual and elegant scent. It is soapy but not too much. It is so well composed like a beautifull poem without being low-brow at all. It is very silent but deep.
The ingridients are: soft amber, oud, rose taifi and musk.
But the interesting thing is that all these ingridients already sound so heavy that I would not expect any of it apart from the musk. The musk is encasing all the notes from the beginning till the end. And the end is very far as it is a long lasting scent.

At moments it reminds me on Eau de Marveilles by Hermes but Hermes is loud, for my taste dissonant and posess an artificial weight which you can find in the most western oriental perfumes!

1 Tola(12ml) perfume oil = AED 800/USD 217 (when you buy 1tola you get 1 free)
100 ml Perfume Spray = AED 130/USD 35

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Perfume samples for testing





Where do you get perfume samples for testing???

I think it is of big importance to test perfume thoroughly before you make the decision to buy one.

For me it wasn't possible almost never to buy a perfume on the first smell in the perfumery. I need to smell a perfume a couple of times to get a feeling and even more to test it  a couple of times on my own skin.

Recently I got a sample of "Amber Absolute" (Tom Ford Private Blend) which I tested twice in a perfumery and fell in love with. So as I got the sample and put a drop on my skin I was very surprised, not to say I was shocked how it smelled.
In the perfumery it was kinda smooth amber and on my skin it was like medical ivy mixed with alcohol with a strong displeasing smell of frankincense. It was reminiscent of cough syrup my daughter used to take....

So it shows once again how important it is to test a scent on one's own skin!

The smell which you notice at someone else doesn't have to smell same on your own skin. It is because we all have different skin chemistries...

But where to get samples?

You can get samples at perfumeries when you buy something there but mostly the scent for which you are looking for is not available.

In general I have two sources where I get samples. And you can believe me that I am testing many several perfumes almost every day :-D

1) There are online perfumeries which provide samples by payment. Here I will name a few good one's where I use to order:
- www.luckyscent.com (located in the US)
- www.allaviolettaboutique.com ( located in Italy)
- www.theperfumedcourt.com (located in the US)
- www.ausliebezumduft.de (located in Germany)
and finally: on Ebay you can find amazing samples!

These ones I like most because they have a good choice and espacially a great choice of rare and international, exotic perfumes which are not easy to get!

2) There are some internet communities for perfume lovers where you can do several things (comment perfumes, read comments of different useres, exchange expiriences about perfume and most important you can make exchanges of samples)
For me this way it is quite amazing because you have the ability to get many samples for free in order you give your samples which you don't need any more! And you learn to know amazing people with the same passion...
And here they are:
-www.parfumo.de (located in Germany - it is my favorite!)
-www.fragrantica.com
- www.basenotes.net

For any questions, drop me a line ;-))

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

My Fata Morgana



This is a story which happened last summer in Abu Dhabi at the Emirates Palace during my holidays.

My daughter and me sat in the restaurant in the morning eating our breakfast when they came in.

I never saw eyes like these, hazel, gold-shiny color beautifully formed...They were so beautifull and shiny, full of happiness and they looked at me behind the niqab of that young, elegant lady, hand in hand with her handsome husband.
They looked like a typical local couple. She was wearing a beautifull but simple black abaya having a wonderfull Louboutin clutch in mint python and he a white candura. But they were the first local couple I saw there, who were so intimate and lovingly to each other.  So due to this impression I was sure they were at their honeymoon.

The waiter placed them right beside our table. And at the moment they passed our table it happened....as they were taking place I sensed something so beautifull in the air that I never smelled before. I was sure it was a fragrance passing over from that couple.

They sat down, and she took her veil off. I was already asking myself how she will manage to eat with the niqab, as I never saw a woman with a niqab in a restaurant before.

It is very hard to describe the scent, but I still have it in my memory.
When I would choose a color to define it, I would choose the color salmon! It was soo smoothly and just a bit soapy, clean with a light oriental note but not oud, since it had nothing sharp in it, probably with a base of musk.

I wass kinda obsessed of it at that moment, as I am a total scent-freak! And every time she moved, or stood up a wave of this wonderfull note would come over to our table. I was really speechless.

I looked some times over to their table, but not too often, because I am normally a decent person and I know from my experience, that you don't feel comfortable when someone looks too often and too long in your direction.
I enjoyed this wonderfull smell during my whole breakfast and was really sad as we finished and had to leave.

But later in the afternoon as we came to the pool and took place at a sunlounger it happened again.

Again I was speechless and looked arround from where this scent is coming. There were just an older local lady in black who sat at the sunlounger beside us. And I thought she also is wearing the same fragrance as the young woman from the morning.

Then I went in the pool with my daughter and after slipping down the water slide I saw a young woman in front of me, wearing a nice burqini in front of me. And the same eyes looked at me again.

After a time I went to the sunlounger where I could see that the older lady beside me was the mother, or probably the mother-in-law of the mystical young lady, as they sat by each other sorrounded by a few kids and two men!
So they were not on their honeymoon and seemed to be a few years already married to each other, judging by the kids' age.

Just a few seconds later they took their whole stuff and went all together away.

I hoped so, to meet her again, as I really wanted to ask her about the fragrance and was not able in any of the situations I met her because of the intimate situations and the fact she was in company!

I never met her again!

Unfortunatelly!

And since then I am searching for that scent and I hope so, I will find it someday inshaallah, because I think it is probably the most beautifull smell I have ever sensed.