The Scented Hound

Perfume blog with abbreviated perfume reviews & fragrance reviews.


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The Scented Hound’s 100th Post and “Pay It Forward” Draw!

I can’t believe that it’s possible that I have managed to create 100 postings since I started this venture back in January of last year.  This blog has been a great experience and has allowed me to pursue an interest of mine without guilt and with a lot of fun.  But the best part of this experience has been the people who are part of this “smelly” community who share the same interest and who come in all shapes, sizes and ages, but all with a common love and nose for fragrance.  Without the camaraderie, this wouldn’t nearly be as much fun or satisfying.

To celebrate my 100th posting, I am asking the Scented Hound’s readers to participate in a “pay it forward” positive endeavor.  Why you ask?

Back in August, I posted a review on George Sand by Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier.  I had received a sample from Luckyscent earlier in the year and never got around to testing it.  I fell in love hard and wanted a full bottle badly.  The only problem is that Luckyscent and every other vendor who carried this fragrance was sold out.  Being a former investigator, I never take anything lying down and with the advent of the internet you can find anything if you look hard enough.  I found out who the wholesale distributor of Maitre Parumeur et Gantier was and they were kind enough to reply back to me, but only to tell me that they would no longer be selling George Sand.  I asked to see if they had any bottles sitting around that I could purchase directly.  No luck.  I then found out from another source that the reason that they were no longer selling it was because of an expired licensing agreement.

So what to do next?  After doing some more research I found that the “nose” behind the fragrance was Nicolas de Barry.  Mr. de Barry luckily had his own website and to my surprise he cites the lovely George Sand on the site.  Mr. de Barry in 2003 created a line of  “Les Parfums Historiques.”  These fragrances are created by Mr. de Barry in a historical manner by creating scents that are based on notes favored by the historical figure and by using the same materials available at the given time.  These fragrances are not meant to remind you of the historic figure, but to take you back to their world, personality and being.  In all, Mr. de Barry has created five historical perfumes, the latest is Empress Sissi.  Well, not only did Mr. de Barry cite his perfumes, he also sells them under his own private atelier line.  I was thrilled…but not as thrilled as I was when I came home from vacation and found that there was a box from Portugal; a gift of a bottle of George Sand from Mr. de Barry.

Mr. de Barry didn’t have to send me a gift; but such behavior is surprisingly typical of what I have found in the warmth and generous spirit of this community.  And that spirit is truly lovely.  Before I move on, please check out Mr. de Barry’s website to find out more about this historic perfumes as well as his other offerings.  He also performs master class courses throughout the year.  I for one, hope to participate in one of these classes in the future!  Thank you again Nicolas for your generous spirit of the heart!

Now on to the draw.  Following in Mr. de Barry’s footsteps, I would like to “pay it forward” to my readers with a draw for a Yosh Discovery Set of the Evanescent collection.  There are six 3ml bottles in the collection which includes:  Sottile, Stargazer, U4EAHH!, White Flowers, Ginger Ciao and Omniscent.

Now here’s the easy part.  All I ask you to do to participate in the draw is to “pay it forward” with one good deed or thoughtful action; be it giving a co-worker a compliment to donating to your local charity.  Please note in your comment how you are going to “pay it forward” and you’re entered!

The draw closes on October 13, 2012 and is open to any reader worldwide.  The winner will be drawn at random and will be posted in a subsequent posting.

Good luck to everyone and thanks for helping me make it to my 100th post.  Now let’s “pay it forward!”


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Observations from the Dominican Republic

The view from our balcony!

Back to life, back to reality!  We had a wonderful 9 days in the Dominican Republic.  We spent our time in the beach town of Las Terrenas on the Samana Peninsula.  It’s a beautiful place that is a bit off the beaten path; not the typical US “all-inclusive” destination that tends to be sanitized.  As such, Las Terranas is a working town were you experience the locals living the island life.  In fact, we didn’t run into any American’s on our trip except for one restaurant owner who grew up in Brooklyn, but went back to the island to live with his relatives.   Coming back makes you realize how sterile of an environment we live in…I could live there in a heartbeat.

Our new friend Bonita

Once we got settled in, we forgot what day of the week it was.  Mornings started off with a wonderful breakfast at the hotel (where we made friends with 2 cats which we decided to name Bonita and Plantaina), then a walk on the beach, then lazy time on the beach or by the pool and then afternoon exploration.  Then finally, a wonderful meal in town (we didn’t have a bad meal anywhere we went).  And we did eat and eat and eat.  Where else could you get a full lobster for lunch for $10!??  Living was real hard as you can see.

Here are just a few of my observations from our trip:

  1. We need to learn Spanish.  We always seem to go on vacation to a Spanish-speaking country.  Our resolution for this coming year is to learn the language!
  2. I want to be exotic.  The Dominican people are beautiful and have wonderful dispositions.  Being from the midwest doesn’t lend itself to being exotic.
  3. Chelsea Handler is the funniest damn writer.  I read 2 of her books on the beach.  They’re easy reads, but it’s been a long time since I have laughed out loud while reading a book.
  4. I must have a kind face.  If there was somebody selling something on the beach, they would come to me and not my husband.  And one afternoon we were having a drink at a bar on the beach and a very attractive prostitute asked me if I wanted company.  Of course, I told her no!
  5. I love being a princess.  We went to the hotel’s spa and treated ourselves to a Turkish bath and body scrub, facial and massage.   I’m ready for doing that again a week later!
  6. Fragrances are very different in a tropical environment.  I have to admit since it was so hot (but not horribly humid), I got lazy with my fragrance application.  I brought a lot of samples, but really only tested one, Reflection by Amouage.  It was OK, but to be honest did not really leave me with an impression.  Other fragrance observations include:
  • My signature scent at the beach was Azemour les Orangers; the lovely orange citrus worked very well in the heat.  I wore it almost every day.
  • Two of my other Parfum d’Empire favorites did not fare as well.  Eau Suave became horribly heavy and cloying and Iskander just fell flat.
  • Amouage’s Dia was worn once and all I got was leather, which I didn’t when I tested it previously.  The leather was not right for the beach.
  • My hubby put on MFK’s Lumiere Noire once night and it smelled incredible.  I liked it when I tested it, but on him it was magnificent.  This might be on his Christmas list!
  • I wanted to find a great buy at the Duty Free shops, but all of the offerings were the standard department store fare.  Boring.

Getting back into the swing of things since the trip has been challenging at best, but I am slowly getting back in the groove.  Today however, I took off work so I could go to the doctor to get all of my shots for African Safari trip scheduled for February! Yea! (that yea is for the trip, not for the 5 shots I received!)


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The Scented Hound Goes to the Islands

It’s vacation time for the Scented Hound.  We typically will head out after Labor Day and for some reason each year we always forget that we make plans in the Caribbean during hurricane season!  But we never have any problems and it looks like we’ll be OK again this year.

I’ll be on hiatus for about 12 days or so.  I have decided that I am going on vacation without my phone or computer.  I’ll only take my iPod and Kindle.   Of course, I’m planning to take some perfume samples with me and I’ll report my observations when I get back.

See you in a bit!