Hey Hey APJ,
I’m not sure if you followed our adventures as we traveled across the USA in a diagonal from LA to NYC. Stop number 3 was in Chicago, Illinois. We had a few things on the agenda that needed doing. Number ONE was celebrating Anita’s (Musette from Perfume Posse) birthday. Which we did in high style, morning at the Chicago Art Gallery, Lunch in the Walnut Room at the old Marshall Fields (now Macy’s) and dinner at Hard Rock cafe (idea had by a Chicago native). We also had a meetup of the perfumista crew that started at Barney’s went to Neiman Marcus and ended in cocktails and Chicago deep dish pizza. We met some wonderful people, had a complete blast and fell head over heels in love with Chicago.
I also fell madly in love with two fragrances, the first of which is ..
Iris Tubereuse by Creed 2014
Photo Stolen CreedUSA
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Galbanum, orange, violet leaf
Heart: Tuberose, lily-of-the-valley, lily
Base: Musk, orange blossom, vanilla
What I didn’t expect on my travels was to find a new Creed that I want so desperately in my collection.
The opening of Iris Tubereuse is a big fat punch in the nose of galbanum, there is other stuff but my skin boosts the galbanum beautifully. Then the green is peeled back to let the most glorious white florals emerge, or bloom really. Green notes and white flowers. You had me at hello. This is heady and deliriously big for about 20 minutes, reminding me of the 1980s: big hair, big shoulder pads, bold colours, cinched waists and spike heels (and that was the men!!).
After that initial burst of WHOA enormous Iris Tubereuse settles into a warm, lush, tropical evening stroll. A little breathy, slightly sweaty and humid. Very little iris (or violet leaf) to be smelled on my skin, but that could be me missing it completely. The vanilla/musks in dry down are pleasant and totally unchallenging, this is the least interesting part of iris tubereuse yet I can see that being part of its attraction to the mainstream buyers.
The very handsome young man at the David Jones Libertine counter told me it was his best seller for young women buying their own and all men buying gifts. Interesting. I would happily rock this, and I love the bottle.
My sample came from Libertine Parfumerie who have live sites in both David Jones and Myer, Sydney City Stores.
Libertine Parfumerie has AUD$385/100ml with FREE SHIPPING in Australia (Christmas Delivery cut off December 22)
Creed in the US has US$300/100ml
Surrender To Chance have samples starting at $5/.5ml
Portia xxx
Chicago 2014 Photo Essay
Kim, Jin, Kath, Musette & I at some cool live music bar. Great food & service, can’t remember the name damnit! (Shaw’s Blue Crab Lounge)
At the Neiman Marcus Creed counter. I have no idea what happened to my Barneys photos
My new boyfriend. Looks after the Patou fragrances but I can’t remember his name. Let’s just call him Mr Turbo (Richard Gonzalez)
Julie R and I in the cool of the evening.
DRINKS!!!
Deep dish Pizza.
The crew at the end of the day. we’d lost quite a few along the way. These are the stayers.
My favourite American artist, Georgia O’Keefe. Here are my three favourites from the Chicago gallery of her work.
You have no idea how enormous this piece is, you can still feel reverberations of this look above the clouds from a plane in modern works.
Musette’s BIRTHDAY lunch at the Walnut Room. The extra lady told us there would be a very short wait. We got to the line and the other people said over 40 minutes. We went and chewed her out about that and were seated immediately due to ir being a Very Special Birthday. Thank You Macy’s. Food was really yummy too.