Consider The Candy Perfume Boy’s Great Big Grandma Gift Dilemma Solved

Granny and the Grandkids — From L to R – My older brother, sister, grandma and I at the Safari Park in 1991 – each of my siblings and I sporting the same DREADFUL haircut…

10 days ago I put out a call for help to aid me in choosing a suitable gift for my grandma for her 80th birthday. It’s safe to say that I was completely blown away by the many wonderful and thoughtful responses that the post received, it was great to see the plethora of well wishes for Big G (which I passed on to her and she was very touched) as well as the number of interesting and befitting suggestions for her birthday perfume.

The suggestions ranged across all genres and included perfumes from Mona di Orio, Frederic Malle, Guerlain, Amouage, Puredistance, Chanel, Dior and Ormonde Jayne, and that’s just to name a few. Classy names for a classy broad!

I do have to say a massive thank you for all of the suggestions that you all so kindly put forward, we may not have picked a perfume that was put forward in the post BUT we did consider all of the suggestions very carefully and we definitely have a wealth of choice for future perfume presents for grandma in the future!

So which perfume did we get?

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Great Big Grandma Gift Dilemma

Granny and I — Posing runs in the family…

Things have been a bit hectic here at Candy Perfume Towers, last Saturday I became an uncle (OMGMYNEWNEPHEWISSOCUTE) and I have exams coming up in the next couple of weeks which means that posts will be sporadic, if at all (booooo to exams). Also, next week is my grandmother’s 80th birthday and we intend to celebrate in style, meaning that most of my time will be spent with party prep and the painstaking task of scanning hundreds of photos for a celebratory slideshow, not to mention the fact that I need to shop for a suitable present – this is where you come in.

After lengthy discussion with my mother it has been decided that Nigel and I will be buying my grandma a perfume for her birthday because she deserves something indulgent for such a landmark event and she does really enjoy her perfume. The problem is that I just cannot decide which one to get her! I want her to have a perfume that is special, something she can treasure but use with abundance, something ephemeral that she can enjoy whilst it lasts.

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Katie Puckrik Smells – And How! – An Evening With Katie Puckrik and Perfume Lovers London

Katie Puckrik Does Indeed ‘Smell’

YouTube frightens me slightly. Maybe I’m just a wimp but despite the wealth of content YouTube has more loons, weirdos (not the good kind) and trolls than any of the other ‘tubes’, including the London Underground, which indeed has its fair share. Other than the odd music video and occasional perfume-related video I really don’t visit it much and I admire those who can put themselves out there, warts and all.

One person who is not afraid of YouTube and actively embraces the medium with as much gusto as one person can conjure is Katie Puckrik of Katie Puckrik Smells. Katie’s YouTube reviews are pithy, fun and are splashed with charismatic wit, which is no surprise as Katie Puckrik is someone with oodles of charisma and she has been a key player in changing the way that perfume is discussed.

As a general rule of thumb I am not a big fan of YouTube perfume reviews, with my tastes lying with the written word rather than the spoken, but I always make sure I watch Katie’s videos because she talks about scent in not only an intelligent way, but because she makes it so much fun. It was for this reason that I jumped at the chance of spending an evening with Katie Puckrik organised by Olfactory Events and Perfume Lovers London.

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Scent a Celebrity Series: Pink Friday Perfumes – Scenting Nicki Minaj

“Super hero by night, rapper by day.”

I have decided that due to the overwhelming number of abysmal celebuscent (celebrity perfume) launches the celebrities of this world simply cannot be trusted with their scent choices. So, as a remedy to their poor choices, and to avoid having to reach for the smelling salts to revive myself from bad-celebuscent-induced hysteria, I have chosen to start the Scent a Celebrity Series.

So far I have picked scents for everyone’s favourite Puppet/Marionette hybrids – The Muppets – and the love-her-or-hate-her Icelandic songstress Björk. Today I’m going to be picking scents for a relatively new kid on the block and another love-her-or-hate-her celebrity, but this one is likely to ruffle a few more feathers than Björk, even when she is donning her infamous swan dress. Ladies and gentleman I introduce you to Miss Nicki Minaj.

Nicki Minaj is not your typical bubblegum-pop-princess, she is a foul-mouthed, schizophonic rap-Barbie with a penchant for unusual vocal tricks and hyper-fast rhymes. She has successfully crossed the divide between pop & rap, and although her many alter egos and sonic styles can, at times, sound cluttered (and like they are in need of some serious editing) she is redefining the way two of the biggest music genres combine whilst being utterly fabulous at the same time.

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It’s Time to Scent The Muppets on The Candy Perfume Boy Tonight

“It’s time to play the music
It’s time to light the lights
It’s time to meet The Muppets on The Muppet Show tonight.”

I love The Muppets and I’m not ashamed to admit it, not for one second. Muppet Treasure Island is one of my all-time favourite films (probably right behind Sister Act), mainly due to the fact that it mixes two of my favourite things together; Muppets and PIRATES. I also love it because it reminds me of my childhood when my siblings and I would watch the video tape (remember those?) over and over and over again.

On Friday, the boy and I decided to see the latest Muppets movie, inventively titled ‘The Muppets’. As expected The Muppets were on top form and the movie was funny, adorable and wackily outrageous. To me, The Muppets are infectious, they get inside your head and force you to smile, laugh and be happy.

Ever since seeing the latest Muppet adventure on Friday I have had Muppets on the brain, and the little thought bubbling inside my noggin was “what fragrances would The Muppets wear?” Over the weekend I have been mentally assigning fragrances to our beloved furry friends, who are REAL and in no way puppet/marionette hybrids, and here are the results.

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Tea Party

“Time for Tea”

It’s been a busy week here at The Candy Perfume Towers, hence the lack of posts. I’ve been a busy boy with work-work, university work and a writing project that all seemed to come to a head at the same time. But I’m not complaining, there are worse things in life than being busy right?

Busy is good as far as I am concerned. I am a perpetually lazy person by nature so I need to have lots to do to prevent me from staring at the television or keeping my nose in a book all day. But when there is lots of work to do and deadlines to meet I find that I have to take some time to relax and re-organise my head. In other words, when things get a bit too busy and hectic, it is time for tea!

Tea to me is relaxation, it is also my other vice after perfume. Weirdly, I only drink tea in the evening and at weekends, I never drink tea at work, perhaps because I enjoy nothing more than coming home, throwing on my pajamas and sitting down to some serious blog writing with a nice, hot cup of tea.

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Guide to Oud

Oud is a note that seems to have had a great deal of popularity over the last few years. Most perfume houses have an ‘oud’ in their line-up, in fact many have several – anybody who’s anyone has got one. Despite it’s prolific presence in today’s perfume landscape, it cannot be denied that oud is a wonderfully powerful material, that when used properly can be one of the most beautiful smells known to man.

Oud is the jigsaw piece that helps fuse European and Eastern styles of perfumery together, and whilst the oud that is used in western perfumery is much cleaner (and largely synthetic) than that used in the east, it has coloured the face of perfumery in bright arabian hues and taken us on exotic voyages to faraway lands.

Oud

Oud/Oudh/Aoud/Agarwood is a “dark, resinous heartwood” [1] that forms in infected Aquilaria trees. The infection is due to a specific type of mould, that changes the colour and density of the wood, leaving a strong, dark resin (the oud) in the core.

Due to its rarity and variation in quality and scent profile, oud is a very difficult and expensive ingredient to work with, hence why the majority of oud fragrances use a synthetic substitute.

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A Perfume Free Zone? – Perfume In The Workplace

“Exactly HOW MANY sprays of Poison are you wearing?!”

The European attitude to perfume is very different to that of our American counterparts. Some parts of Europe in particular have a, let me be diplomatic here, shall we say ‘relaxed’ attitude to bathing and perfume can be used to cover up the husky odours of the body that might be missed during said relaxed bathing rituals – think ‘Italian shower’ and you’re on the right track.

Whilst this may be a little of an over exaggeration, because in these modern times generally everybody bathes quite regularly, including myself I hasten to add. Where we definitely are relaxed is in the perfume department. We don’t mind what perfume you wear, when or where you wear it. We also tend to favour the larger, richer perfumes to the fresh, clean one and as long as you’re not deliberately trying to send someone into an Angel-induced coma then you’re fine. Across the pond things seem to be quite different.

This week I was reading an article, about the banning of perfume in the workplace, something that seems to be happening more and more in the US. Now this interested me for two reasons; firstly because I am a perfume-nut and I love my big perfumes, and secondly because I am a Human Resources professional by trade and this sort of thing is a big conundrum and an absolute minefield for us HR people.

So it got me to thinking – should perfume be banned in the workplace? Or is this a case of the PC Police taking things one step too far? Can I see my workplace implementing a ‘No-perfume policy’ or designating itself a ‘Perfume Free Zone’ anytime in the near future? The more I started to think, the more I realised that it is in fact, quite a complex issue.

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The White Stuff – Five Scents for Snow

Nigel expertly posing in yesterday’s falling snow.

The snow has come to Britain, and in true British style everybody has lost their shiz. Seriously, we knew the snow would be coming this weekend on Thursday and ever since the supermarkets have been packed and the shelves have been emptied. Petrol pumps have been drained and the grit has been stock-piled.

I don’t what it is about us Brits that makes us so panicky when it comes to snow, it’s never really that bad, yet the whole country seems to come to a standstill with the slightest flake of the white stuff. Seriously guys, relax, snow is awesome, yeah it’s cold and it totally SUCKS to drive in, especially if your car is a Matchbox Toy like mine (i.e. a Fiat 500), but there is nothing more fun than taking walks in the snow, making Snow Angels and throwing snowballs at your weedy boyfriend!

In order to make the most out of the snow (which has already started to thaw), I thought I’d compile a list of five scents that are best suited to wearing in the snow. Us Fumeheads do like to match our scents to the occasion, and snow is no exception. The scents that I have picked all have a snowy aura, but they also bring warmth and comfort in a time when those qualities are needed in abundance.

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Bespoke Scents – The Haute Couture of Perfumery (Plus a Little Giveaway)

Francis Kurkdjian with his travelling box of tricks

The upcoming release of Denyse Beaulieu’s book ‘The Perfume Lover’, in which she documents the complete creation of her very own bespoke perfume, created by the super-talented Bertrand Duchaufour no less, got me thinking about the whole idea of bespoke perfumes.

A bespoke perfume is the holy grail for most perfumistas, it is the haute couture of perfumery. To have a perfume designed exclusively for you, with your tastes and scent preferences in mind, must be one of the greatest perfume experiences on this green Earth. I’ve often wondered what my bespoke perfume would be like, what it would be called, and most importantly would I be faithful to it?

The obvious downside of a bespoke perfume is the price, Roja Dove’s bespoke service costs a minimum of £20,000 [1], Floris offers the service for £2,750 [2] and other houses, such as Miller Harris, offer the service but don’t list a price, and we all know what that means. I’d hate to think how much a bespoke Guerlain costs! For most, the bespoke perfume is an unobtainable dream.

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