This post was previously published on July 14, 2014 in slightly different form. The featured image is a photograph of Profumum Roma’s Dulcis in Fundo perfume bottle.
Perfume love, you are so weird.
Just like real love, you get me sometimes where I least expect it.
But, but, but I say: he’s not my type! He’s too short! Or too… whatever. Goldilocks syndrome. And then the too-short, too-whatever guy is the guy I go mad for.
In perfumery, this is a good thing. Otherwise we perfume addicts would be fabulously scented paupers in debtor’s prison.
My latest sneak attack? A gourmand! Dear readers, I do NOT like to smell like dessert. Except, apparently, when I do!
Since it’s hot hot summer here in NYC, I have toned it down with trying out my usual resinous leathers, ambers, tobaccos, etc. I was, instead, using Ninfeo Mio a *lot.* It was quenching my thirst for something light and citrusy. I wanted to smell fresh and lovely, and it did/does the trick.
Then I got a sample of Profumum’s Dulcis in Fundo. I had actually read about it and thought it was not for me–I have sweet, sweet skin (mosquitoes love me) and it amplifies sweet notes, to the point of being cloying–but for some reason, I was still curious enough to try it. Maybe because of my constant search for a vanilla I don’t hate (besides my beloved Tobacco Vanille). Maybe because Kafka had reviewed it and not hated it, despite also not being a big gourmand fan. She wrote, “Dulcis in Fundo is the furthest thing from edgy, revolutionary, or complex, but it may be the most decadent of sinfully rich vanillas.”
It’s true. It’s a very linear scent. (Linear in perfumery means exactly what it does in life–that a scent starts out one thing, and one thing only and doesn’t really “go” anywhere.) But oh man, you cannot stop smelling yourself if it works well on you. (Someone wrote somewhere that it’s lemon Pledge on her, which ugh, I’m so sorry!)
So, enough of my vague jabbering, here is what it smells like: oranges, then vanilla. Vanilla-orange. Crème brulee with oranges. An orange creamsicle. Never in a million years would I have ever guessed I would want to smell like an orange creamsicle ever in my life, yet here I am.
Maybe it’s because I personally hate citrus in my actual desserts. I’m the heathen that doesn’t like chocolate oranges. If you put lime/orange/lemon on something sweet, you can rest assured I will hate it. Maybe that’s why in perfume form it doesn’t bother me. I don’t know, you guys, I just know that it’s addictive!
I’m trying out my teensy sample this week (it’s practically an oil, so a little goes a long way), and so far, it’s been three days non-stop of wearing it, and every morning wanting to wear it, and wishing I had a bottle. Yes, total wishlist. Total. Here’s someone else reviewing it, for variety:
Exercises In Vague 