I could have included this new release from Tom Ford in my Forlorn Festive Fragrance Fantasies series, as at £100 per 50ml I can't see Santa granting my wish, not in these credit crunched times. I should count myself lucky just to get a present marked Lucky Dip (Girl Age 45-55). I guess I am still harbouring a tiny hope though, and don't want to snuff that out completely by classifying this particuar lemming as "forlorn"! Moreover, the distinctive thing about White Suede - apart from its high price and inclusion in a White Musk Collection though it doesn't appear to contain musk - is the fact that it does contain saffron. Here are the notes:
"Rose, saffron, thyme, mate tea, olibanum, lily-of-the-valley, amber, suede and sandalwood"
Now, as it happens, there are no fewer than SIX other scents I really love that have saffron in them as well, namely:
Ormonde Jayne Ta'if
Penhaligon's Lily & Spice
Les Parfums de Rosine Rose Kashmirie
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Cimabue
L'Artisan Parfumeur Safran Troublant
Divine L'Homme Sage
This has to be more than mere coincidence - and now that White Suede is going on the list I can only infer that I really must love the saffron note, even though I am at all not sure how it smells. It is that yellow wispy, frondy stuff you use in proper curries, right? That stains your work surface terribly - or am I thinking of turmeric? It is very expensive, I do remember that. And oddly enough, I used to have a cat of that name, who was ginger with a white bib. I am going to have to get some saffron from Tesco's and have a jolly good sniff - you never know, it might actually work out slightly cheaper per ounce than the perfume.
Though I still want the perfume very much.... Have you got that, Santa? Or for that matter, any Tom Ford executives who might happen to be reading this...
4 comments:
Oh no this sounds like my kind of poison :(
I love Ta'if and Lily and Spice too. I was trying to break this perfume addiction, but I have a feeling I'm going to get sucked back in once the PhD is finished!
Very possibly...It is probably all to the good that White Suede hasn't reached this part of the country yet!
I have been gravitating towards saffron in fragrance recenlty myself. It is indeed the very expensive spice used in cooking, commonly Mediterranean dishes. It is the key ingredient in paella; neither the flavor nor the yellow color would be the same without ut! That said, I am not sure exactly how it smells and how it would translate into a note. However, Tom Ford seems to love it as he has also used it in Private Blend Noir de Noir.
I think Farah above and I smelt Noir de Noir in London last year and that she liked it a lot and I found it a bit too earthy / Czech & Speakey. If Noir de Noir has saffron in it, though, then it deserves a second sniff, for the note seems to exert a strangely beguiling power over me as a rule!
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