I used to wear White Linen quite a lot. I always got compliments when I wore it, too, so it must work really well with my chemistry. I wore it because my grandmother, lover of perfumes that she was, used to get me a big bottle of Estee Lauder perfume every year at Christmas, and she knew I liked White Linen so she got me that.

I wore it all throughout my late teens and well into my twenties, and then I sort of... stopped.

I'm not entirely sure why I stopped wearing it. Partly, my grandmother died and I didn't have the money to spend on perfume (White Linen isn't the most expensive perfume you can buy, but it's not cheap!). Partly, too, I had a big "life change" in my late twenties and very often when that happens, all sort of changes take place (hair changes colors and gets much shorter or is grown out much longer, clothing styles change, etc.).

Well, last night, I put some on. I have a little mini bottle of it (I LOVE mini perfumes) and for some reason I thought, I know, I'll put on White Linen.

Wow, talk about a blast from the past... Smells are among the strongest possible triggers for memories, and this is no exception. I remembered, for example, that I wore White Linen on my wedding day in 1994 when I was all of 19 (and had the boldness to get married in a white wedding gown!). I remembered a lot about my life with my first husband (who, I've said before, is not a bad guy). I remembered, oh, just flashes of times and places a long time ago, when I was someone else and had fairly big hair (hey, it was the 80s after all) and didn't have two clues to rub together.

Mostly happy memories, actually. Not, like, happy-happy, how I wish those days were back again type memories, but nothing I regard as especially unpleasant or anything.

And all that from a perrfume...

Anyway, I still like White Linen, and I think perhaps I should start wearing it again. Other people seem to love the way it smells on me, and maybe I can start some new memories associated with it.

I wonder, years from now, what I'll think of when I smell Tresóor (which I only really started wearing fairly recently), but then, I might have to stop wearing it for a long time in between...

Created in 1999 by Elizabeth Arden, Green Tea is an uplifting fragrance that energizes the body, excites the senses and revitalizes your spirits. With zesty top notes of caraway and rhubarb blended with the sparkling citrus fragrances of lemon, orange zest and bergamot. The uplifting middle notes are a cool harmony of peppermint, jasmine, carnation, fennel and celery seed, while the base extends to fresh hints of oakmoss, musk and white amber.

I don't know that I'd wear Green Tea often, but it could be worn on a daily basis if you wanted to. For me, it's a nice change from the usual complex florals I favor (one of these days, I'll write about my love affair with Lancome Tresor, heh).

If you're looking for a nice, light, refreshing fragrance, go give Green Tea a try, and see. It's certainly worthy of a smell! (And for the record, at this time I don't have any in stock, nor do I intend to get any, so this is just a review, not a sales pitch, heh.)

Designed by Christian Dior in 1956, now a famed classic. A romantic and carefree bouquet is composed around Christian Dior’s lucky flower and the emblem of Dior couture, lily of the valley. The fragrance is further softened with notes of jasmine, lilac and sandalwood. Diorissimo is a chance to indulge yourself in the soft, feminine scent of springtime. Classically feminine!

Okay, that's the official version. My personal version is that this fragrance is very 1950s French, extremely feminine, very soft and almost powdery. It reminds me of many things, including a springtime garden. It's not the usual kind of fragrance I wear (I tend to prefer oriental-florals with a more sophsticated blend; this blend is pretty simple, in a good way), but I like this. It's fresh, it's lovely, it's got gorgeous lilac notes that I find extremely pleasant, and, well, I'm wearing it right now.

I'm also going nuts trying to place where I know it from. I had an aunty or a teacher who wore it, maybe. Or perhaps my grandmother (who was always a fan of perfumes, something else I have in common with her). I don't know, I can't place it. I can say that I like the perfume, despite it being somewhat outside my usual style. Perhaps a bit of "uncomplicated feminine" is a good thing now and then, yes?

Had a smell of Britney Spears' new perfume today. UGH. Okay, I know it's not nice to be mean and I'm sure there are people who just love this perfume, but it smells like cotton candy (i.e., fairy floss). Yuck. Who wants to walk around smelling like the food area of a carnival?! (Well, I guess it's better than smelling like the carnies, but I digress).

I'm sure that someone must like this perfume, and maybe even Britney does (one would presume she approved the fragrance), but other than maybe a thirteen year old girl, I can't imagine anyone that perfume would suit. Sorry to be so negative, but if I'm going to give my opinion, well, my opinion isn't always flattering.

Sorry, Britney, but your latest perfume sucks. In my opinion. Your mileage may vary (it may smell great on some people, just no people I happen to know).

I like Sunflowers (Elizabeth Arden). It's bright, cheerful, spunky, and it won a Fifi Award, so I'm not alone in my assessment of it. It's a nice light floral, suitable for everyday wear, and very contemporary. It's also not very expensive, which is an excellent thing in a fragrance, as far as I'm concerned. There's nothing inherently wrong with expensive perfume, but if you can get a really nice fragrance without breaking the bank, well, it's something to think about, eh?

Anyway, I figured I voice my opinions on other stuff, might as well on perfume, too, right?

Oh. My. Deity.

I got a shipment of perfume today. A couple of the items were for me (well, why on earth not?). Dior's "j'adore". Oh. My. Deity.

I tried some the other night and was extremely impressed by it, which is why I bought some to sell (and some for myself at wholesale prices, hehe). Now, I'm wearing a base of perfumed cream with Eau de Parfum on top of that. I've had it on for about half an hour an the initial top notes have mellowed and oh my deity. This is GOOD. It's got this fantastic gardenia type note that's just intoxicating (almost literally). I think I'm getting aroused or something. Wow.

This is the most luscious fragrance I've ever personally experienced. I'm serious! I like perfume, yeah, but normally I don't enthuse like a fool over them. But this... Oh. My. Deity. J'adore Dior j'adore!

I don't know if I'd wear this every day, as it doesn't seem to be an everyday sort of fragrance to me (Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers fits that bill, and, to a lesser extent, Lancome Tresor, which I still love), because j'adore is just so very... indulgent, I guess. Now I understand why they use a picture of a golden woman in a pool of liquid gold for the advertising. It's strangely appropriate (and much nicer than the Calvin Klein ads with all the blank expressions and boys with puffy lips and Kate Moss).

So, hey, if you're in the market for a new fragrance, try j'adore next time you're in a store that sells it. I can highly recommend it. And, since it was winner of the 29th Annual “FiFi” 2001 Awards for U.S. Women’s Fragrance Star of the Year, it would seem that I'm not alone in my opinion of the stuff.