We Three Kings: Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh - Gold

Three Kings Icon ©2010 Megan Ruisch

By most standards, the infant Jesus had a bit of a rough start in life, what between the lowly manger, the presence of assorted farm animals in his straw-carpeted nursery, and the constant nagging fear of becoming the next cot death statistic at the hands of Herod. But on the other hand, he did receive some excellent presents. For the three wise men who came to pay homage to this very special baby brought exotic gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These are more imaginative choices than the usual suspects of a Beatrix Potter mug, a silver spoon or an educational mobile. And they are all gifts that you would be happy to receive at any age, well, speaking for the perfumistas amongst us, anyway.

And so it came to pass that Krista of Scent of The Day and Joanne from Redolent of Spices invited a number of their fellow bloggers to review perfumes inspired by the three gifts of the Magi. Here is the first of my three picks - I will post the other two in the course of the week.

GOLD: Gorilla Perfume – Icon ("sacred bling")

Notes: bergamot, orange blossom, mandarin, myrrh, sandalwood

Nothwithstanding the somewhat flip introduction to the Christmas story above, I actually had a strict religious upbringing in the fold of a minor American sect. Our church was plain and unadorned, as were its lay readers who took the place of priests. We didn’t really have carols either, though I do recall one hymn that included the faintly curious line: “the Bethlehem babe - beloved, replete, by flesh embound”.

Understandably, my father felt sensorily deprived in his own church, and greatly envied the rich trappings of more mainstream faiths. In an uncharacteristic access of generosity he even bought me a colour TV, just so he could watch a live broadcast of a bishops’ convention in New Zealand while staying with me. Father didn’t get much change out of £200, but he was able to enjoy the procession of diocesan dignatories down under in all their full technicolour finery.

This craving of my father’s for ecclesiastical glitz goes way back. For on family holidays, instead of being taken to child-orientated attractions such as theme parks and zoos, as soon as we could walk my brother and I were made to traipse round old churches and monasteries instead. The most fun we ever had as kids was rewinding home cine camera footage to watch monks crossing cloisters backwards.

And from these nave-gazing holidays Father would invariably bring back cheap and gaudy religious knick-knacks, which appealed to his magpie-like eye. The two I remember most vividly are a white plastic altar with a gold chalice concealed behind an Advent-calendar-sized door, and an ornate carved triptych with paintings of Greek icons, its lavish gilt imagery contrasting with the dark wood.

Gorilla Perfume’s Icon perfectly captures the mystique and rituals of these other, very different religions of Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy, with which my father had a life-long dalliance. They were the bright silk lining in the dull worsted overcoat of his main faith. Icon conjures up the familiar whiff of incense, the clunk of the censer, and above all the flashes of gold in the cool and gloomy church interiors – from the glittering brocade vestments to the gleaming chalice and the ornate paintings adorning the high altar and shadowy side chapels.

I detect three main strands to Icon: a pronounced orange note, the myrrh (I could have used it as my myrrh selection(!), and something undefinable but vaguely herby. This slightly odd combination works surprisingly well and the scent remains pretty light throughout. The orangey/herbal aspects have a bright, slightly medicinal and cleansed feeling about them, as befits a scent associated with the purgative benefits of religious rites. They also evoke images of citrus groves and scrubby Mediterranean vegetation just outside the churches, while the incense undertones summon up their dark and cavernous depths, with bewitching glimpses of secret, "sacred bling"…


Photo of Icon perfume from the Gorilla website, photo of Greek Orthodox church from members.virtualtourist.com

The other participating blogs are listed below - we have all chosen different scents, so every post will be a different interpretation of this theme!

Redolent of Spices

Scent of the Day

EauMG

Parfumieren

All I Am - A Redhead

Chicken Freak's Obsession

Notes from Josephine

The Perfume Chronicles

My Perfume Life


PS Having mastered my friend's MAC to write this, I will be travelling back from California from this afternoon till Tuesday morning (weather and transport modes permitting!) In addition to posting the other two parts of this joint blogging project later this week, another Bonkers Road Trip report (with scented bits!) will be along soon...

Gorilla Perfume B Scent - A Youthful Rose To Turn Back Time...

I have been feeling rather old lately. Or if not old exactly, decidedly middle aged and raggedy round the edges. I seem to be acquiring ailments and sundry symptoms of decrepitude at a worrying rate - between the "blogger's back pain", the dodgy thyroid, the bingo wings, thighs and drumsticks, the Gordon Ramsay forehead (niftily concealed under a youthful fringe), the nasolabial lines (they were just bound to have a proper name...), the memory lapses, failing short AND long sight, fungal toes, proliferating moles, thin, crepey skin etc. On reflection, that should possibly be "among", the list is so long.

Yes, the phrase "grow old gracefully" is starting to sound hollow in today's image-conscious society. I am dimly aware of the surge of interest in treatments such as Botox and Restylane, Titan and Microdermabrasion, and I fear it may only be a question of time before having "work done" is as much a social imperative as using deodorant or flossing.

This simmering pressure to look the "best self one can be" - as opposed to the distinctly ropier version that nature intended (aided and abetted in my own case by years of reckless sun-worshipping and general self-abuse) - troubles me from time to time. Consequently, I have taken a little corrective action in the last couple of days, by signing up for some Pilates classes and starting to moisturise an area greater than just the bit around my eyes and above my top lip.

And then yesterday I managed to dab on a cheery scent that brightened my mood considerably: Gorilla Perfume B Scent. One of the original B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful fragrances, B Scent was resurrected as part of the recent launch of Lush's new Gorilla range, and is the one Lush founder Mark Constantine considered as BNTBTBB's "house scent".

Nukapai, fellow blogger and trainee perfumer from Lush, kindly sent me a brown paper "horse's nose bag" of samples, into which I have been intermittently dipping. There are 20 perfumes in all - the former BNTBTBB lines plus a handful of new releases - but as most of them are new to me I don't really make that distinction. At 20% concentration, Gorilla perfumes are at parfum strength and comprise mainly natural ingredients. I attended a talk last year by Mark and Simon Constantine (his son and fellow perfumer) in their subterranean Covent Garden store, in which they regaled us with stories of sandalwood sourcing skullduggery, and emphasised their own commitment to quality and sustainability.

I haven't bottomed out this large collection yet, and of the ones I have tried so far, they didn't all work for me. As with Ajne and other ranges, my response to natural scents tends to be polarised. They remind me of "the little girl with the little curl" in Longfellow's poem:

"When she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid."

This may have a lot to do with the fact that natural perfumes are particularly pungent on my skin, at least initially. So Ladyboy and Lush were no-nos, for example, while Exhale and 1000 Kisses hit the spot.

And B Scent was another immediate hit, and I note that it contains more than a few of my favourite things...ylang-ylang, jasmine and sandalwood, for starters.

Notes: lemon, bergamot, fennel, lavender, rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, sandalwood, musk

The citrus opening is effervescent in a sherbety boiled sweet kind of way, which soon segues into a rose floral accord. This never strays into cloyingly sweet territory thanks to the judicious addition of fennel and lavender, which Mark Constantine was inspired to add while eating a bowl of fennel-flavoured soup during the development process! Now I don't care for either of those notes in principle, but they tone down the heady florals perfectly and are barely detectable individually to my nose. Yes, you cannot help but feel happy - and younger - while wearing B Scent. So it came as no surprise to read this description of it on the Lush/Gorilla website:

"A stylish and utterly feminine combination of rose tempered with crisp citrus. This is Mark’s daydream of what young French girls smell like."

I have been wearing B Scent for two days now, reapplying it frequently to experience the zingy opening again. Tania Sanchez called it a "joyful rose" and awarded it four stars. The only other perfume I can think of which has pulled off such a happy combination of citrus and rose is IUNX Eau Frappée, which smells of citron pressé or lemon sorbet ice cream mixed with yellow rose petals.

The interesting thing about B Scent is that it isn't too girlish on me. This is not a case of mouton spritzed as agneau. And I am pleased to report that Mr Bonkers doesn't think so either. Last night he said I smelt of onions and tonight he said: "When it has worn off it is quite good actually - like Imperial Leather". A perfume can earn no greater accolade from Mr B than to be compared to soap, however erroneously, so in this household that counts as a result.

So, I feel cleaner(!) and younger, and the world somehow seems a better place through these rose and lemon-scented glasses. Maybe B Scent is the new non-surgical face lift. It's too late for Cher, but there may yet be a cheaper, more fragrant way to hold back the years...

Photo of B Scent logo and map of India from the Lush/Gorilla website/blog, photo of face lift subject from skininstitute.co.nz, photo of gorilla from lifeinthefastlane.ca