A gift from me to all of you...

Hello, my friends,
    Recently, I've been thinking about what I can do to make people's days a little brighter as we live through these uncertain times. As an artist, I realised there was one thing I most certainly could do: make some colouring pages and provide them, free of charge, to anyone who needs something fun to do!
This is the first page I've made (hopefully not the last), "Ms. Bunny in her Garden"
Just click on the JPEG image below and print it out to start colouring!
Note: This one might be best for slightly older art lovers, as there is a lot of floral detail in the picture that little ones might struggle to colour in!

Ms. Bunnyin her Garden.

Violets, violets, delicious violets! A review of Chanel's Misia.

When I was a little girl, I used to adore a particular sweet: Parma Violets. These appear be a particularly British sweet and a divisive one at that, people either love them or they hate them. I loved them. I loved their scent, their flavour and the slightly subversive idea of eating a flower (even highly processed and blended with sugar). When I was older, and heavily steeped in Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge books, I sought out candied violets too and, predictably enough, I loved those too. It was practically a given that, once I became obsessed with perfume, I would adore violet perfumes. 

As far as I am concerned there is one violet perfume, a relatively recent addition to the genre, which really takes the crown as the Queen of Violet perfumes: Misia from Chanel's Les Exclusifs range.

Misia is availible as an Eau de Parfum but the version upon which this review is based is the Eau de toilette and I have always felt that violets are particularly suited to the light airy composition of eau de toilettes, as Shakespeare said: 

"A violet in the youth of primy nature

Forward, not permanent, sweet not lasting

The perfume and suppliance of a moment, no more"

Hamlet, Act I, Scene III

If you want words beautifully composed to capture a feeling, one should always turn to the Bard.
    If you want a beautifully composed perfume try Misia. Though, I would have to say, for an EDT these violets, unlike Shakespeare's, are quite long lasting. On my skin, and everyone skin is different so I can make no promises, Misia lasts for roughly six hours before I need to reapply a dab or two.

 Like most Chanel perfumes, Misia carries a signature top note of aldehydes, a spring breeze ruffling the delicate petals of a field of violets. Oh, and how deeply violets dominate the composition! These are, deep, dew moistened violets; their petals sweet and their roots sunk deep into the moist, dark earth. Violets in abundance, their sweetness rounded and warmed by middle notes of raspberry, rose and peach; their roots made temptingly, tantalizingly dark by notes of orris and tonka bean. It's a dancing scent, at once modern and fresh and wreathed in the sunlit glow of memories.

     Misia is a perfume of rococo dressing tables heaped with delicate lace and glittering silver; it's the cloud of powder artfully applied to the maestro's coiffed wig before he settles himself at the piano and dazzles his audience; it's the scent nestled in the beauty spotted decollete of a powdered Mademoiselle; it's the delicate billow of scent that clings to a ribbon tied bundle of Edwardian letters and sepia toned photographs.
     It is also the perfume of an evening stroll by the river; a late spring evening out; a Valentines day bouquet; it's the perfume of romance. 
I can think of no one this scent would not suit. How beautifully it would shimmer and glow on every skin! I do not subscribe to the idea of gendered perfumes and, to me, Misia is decidedly unisex.
How delicate and delicious it would be with a slight rasp of stubble! How delicate and delicious it would be on soft, downy skin!
If you want to escape from the cliche (delightful as it is) of a bouquet of roses this Valentines Day, why not try Misia: a delicious bouquet of violets!

For more information on Violets in Shakespeare, their meanings and quotations, I direct you here:
  A Shakespeare Garden.

Les Cocottes de Paris...

If I asked you to imagine Paris in the nineteenth century, I am sure that many things would spring to your mind; from the novels of Victor Hugo to the towering beauty of the Eiffel tower but I am sure that, eventually, your thoughts would turn to the Demi Monde.
A legend in it's own right, the world of the Moulin Rouge, of Toulous Lautrec paintings, of arias from La Traviata and, above all, a world of scandalous and inspiring courtesans.

This is the world and the women which Les Cocottes de Paris have tried, so beautifully, to capture in their range of perfumes. As far as I am concerned, the result is a delicious success,
La Castiglione, named for the famed lover of Emperor Napoleon III whose experiments with photography have given her an almost mythic status and whose rumored influence over the unification of Italy proves that she was a political force to be reckoned with. She graces the cover of the Penguin Classics edition of "Confessions of a child of the century", peeping out from the oval of a photo frame turned mask. She has become internet avatars and exhibition posters. Her legend is secured by the sheer beauty and daring of the image she created for herself. Her perfume, appropriately, is rich patchouli, anchored by depths of musk and ambergris. This is the perfume of Charles Baudelaries haunting poem, Le Flacon, the intense, memory stirring perfume, whose earthy scent cannot be contained by a mere glass flacon. This is a perfume of the evening certainly, but it could be worn all day long, especially in the Autumn and Winter when it's warmth would surround the wearer in a veritable velvet stole.

La Belle Otero, is a  decadently dirty violet scent. Otero claimed that she dished herself up, at a banquet in St. Petersburg, au natural. If so, she must have been nestled on a bed of Parma Violets.
The violet has always had something of a naughty reputation and their appeal is strengthened here by the headiness of Sandalwood in the base; the very scent which her friend, the writer Colette, claimed La Belle Otero perspired as she danced. Wild and delicious evenings of Spanish dances are conjured in a few notes of beguiling musk and neroli. It's a perfume of summer heat and the dazzle of warmth creeping like fingers on your skin.  It was Colette too who described La Belle as luxurious and that's certainly an impression which comes through with every note of this perfume.
A faint note of sadness runs through the joy of this composition; an appropriate note given the bittersweet nature of La Belle Otero's life whose details I shall not venture into here, but, as is common with a hint of sadness, it serves to make the sweetness all the more joyful.

The final perfume in Les Cocottes collection is as delectable at it's inspiration, the Ballet dancer Chloe Merode. This perfume is a light, floral bouquet with a heart of rose. It's coy and flirtatious, hiding behind a light veil of bergamot before the roses gather strength and come into their own sprawling on a base of fleshly laundered cotton sheets with just an edge of earthy lichen. This is a perfume that creeps up on you with the light whisper of silk ballet slippers but, like the ballet and it's beautiful dancers, it conceals hidden depths and inner strengths. A froth of tulle and a soul of steel. A perfume for the romantic heart if ever there was one.

I've adored testing all three of these perfumes; they are, without a doubt, a beautiful collection. They encapsulate a time with which I am utterly in love, whose art and literature are always in my heart, how could I not adore them.  If I have favourites, I would never even dare to whisper it, I would hate to offend any of these beautiful Mademoiselles, but certain notes do beckon to me from these compositions! One thing that I can assure you of, if you try this collection, you are certain to be seduced by at least one of these perfumes.