The Candy Perfume Boy’s Summer Special V2

Last night I hosted another Summer Special with the lovely Lila Das Gupta of Perfume Lovers London. The theme of the evening was an ‘olfactory summer holiday’ and all who attended strapped themselves into the seats and set off on a fragrant journey around the world, smelling fragrances that were evocative of specific times and places.

The evening was great fun and it was wonderful to yet again meet with like-minded perfume nerds and discuss all things olfactory. As I was the evening’s host I won’t post a blow-by-blow account of the event, but I would like to briefly share with you the perfumes I had selected and the places they represent. You can look out for Tara’s full write-up of the evening on Olfactoria’s Travels soon.

Update: You can read Tara’s wonderful write up here.

On our olfactory world tour we stopped in:

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Gotta Love That Gorilla – Gorilla Perfume Furze & The Voice of Reason Perfume Reviews

As a die-hard fragrance nerd it’s difficult not to love Gorilla Perfume, the fragrant arm of those smelly bath purveyors Lush. For one, they march to the beat of their own drum, drawing inspiration from subjects as varied as Thai Ladyboys and Italian showers. But perhaps most importantly they are an outfit that champions that old idiom “It’s all about the juice”, caring first and foremost for the perfume above bottles and marketing.

This passion for perfume has allowed Lush to birth a line of beautiful, surprising and sometimes downright-wacky fragrances that challenge one’s notion of what constitutes a scent as much as they serve to inspire and foster a life-long love for all that is perfume. It sounds corny but it is brands like Gorilla Perfume that are the reason why I love perfume, when there is so much to be cranky about they have the ability to restore one’s faith in perfume and make one smile with a single spritz. You gotta love that Gorilla!

Late last year Gorilla Perfume launched 12 new fragrances (that’s right -12) under a new collection entitled ‘Volume 2’. The overall look of this new collection feels like a shift in direction for Gorilla Perfume and I’d say the scents themselves follow suit. There seems to be less focus on the cartoonish hijinks of the past and greater emphasis on a more mature approach – dare I say that our Gorilla may have grown up?!

I was sent a few of these new scents to try and today I’d like to share with you my thoughts on two of the most intriguing; Furze and The Voice of Reason.

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Guide to Orange Blossom

I don’t know about you but I am most definitely suffering from the January blues. Christmas and New Year have gone meaning two things; 1) the weather is just going to get worse (boo); and 2) we all have to go back to work for the foreseeable future (double boo). It’s at times like this that one looks forward to summer, when things seem that little bit more joy-filled and fancy free.

If there’s one ingredient that speaks the words of summer it’s orange blossom. To me it is the smell of the elements of summer, It is the olfactory depiction of the air filled with life; the pollen on the breeze, the flight of the bees and insects, and the hot sticky skin of all humans and animals that live for the sun’s warmth and sustenance.

As a continuation of my ‘Guide To‘ series, and to give you all some much-needed Vitamin C, I would like to share with you my list of reference orange blossoms. These fragrances are the ones that I feel that any person exploring the note of orange blossom should pay attention to. It is by no means a conclusive list and as with the other guides in the series (see Tuberose, Lavender and Oud) it is very much a work in progress with new discoveries to be added as an when it is deemed necessary.

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Party Season Scent Guide

Lady Gaga’s got the drinks, but does she have the right scent to match that party outfit?

Tis the season to be jolly, or completely merry, or if you’re British – absolutely trashed. The best thing about the holiday season is the many soirées, parties (office or otherwise), dinners and gatherings that we all inevitably get invited to, and for me this is the fun part, because after all the holidays are about seeing friends & family and having fun.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m going out I sometimes spend more time thinking about the fragrance I’m going to wear rather than the clothes. I very often find myself trying to match my fragrance to the outfit that I am wearing as well as the occasion. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing worse than not being able to find something that matches , but fear ye not – The Candy Perfume Boys is here to help you pick the perfect scent for the party season.

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Holy Jasmine, Batman! Gorilla Perfume Lust Perfume Review

How do you like your Jasmine? Do you take it with bright purple lipstick, red patent heels and a smoking attitude? Do you like your Jasmine to be dressed up like Jessica Rabbit in her sparkly red (almost obscene) gown casually popping pink bubblegum?

If your answer to any of the above is ‘Yes’ then Lust by Gorilla Perfume may be the jasmine for you. This fragrance is not for the faint hearted or the shrinking violets. If you consider yourself a wallflower then you are best to move along quickly, you may find what’s in this bottle slightly terrifying.

Lust is a jasmine-and-a-half, the jasmine to end all jasmines. Have I got my point across?

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