Sleeping de Schiaparelli

Notes according to Fragrantica: Top notes are Bergamot and Galbanum; middle notes are Rose, Jasmine, Magnolia, Orange Blossom, Carnation and Ylang-Ylang; base notes are Patchouli, Vetiver, Sandalwood, Amber, Vanilla, Musk and Oakmoss.

Year: 1938

I love Schiaparelli fragrances. They’re so unique.

The orange blossom, jasmine, magnolia, carnation, ylang-ylang, amber and galbanum are…spicy, almost medicinal, and very sad. It reminds me perhaps unsurprisingly or not of Salut de Schiaparelli.

Is it smoky? It’s…so lovely.

I think it’s the combination of the galbanum and the carnation that are most likely the cause of the spiciness. Because it’s a particular kind of spiciness. It’s…like…a hang-up. It’s like the notes conjure images in your head of a metal hook. On a wall. Maybe that’s too Dali of me? Salvador Dali. But it’s…almost supernatural.

Zelda Fitzgerald used to somewhat like Schiaparelli. There’s a letter she wrote from an insane asylum or a mental institution or mental health ward of a hospital asking for Salut de Schiaparelli. She calls the perfume adequate. …Makes me wonder. Why do I like it too? I’m not schizophrenic, but I do love Schiaparelli and I may be able to talk to real ghosts. How and why did Schiaparelli do that with perfume? Or is it not intentional? …Ha! I have a feeling based on my knowledge of art history and history that it was intentional.

Do you know the answer? Why not? Because I bet you don’t. …WHO DOES!?! Who alive knows anything about this anymore!? And it wasn’t even 100 years ago yet. Why doesn’t anyone research this? I know few people notice. But…you’d think as sophisticated as people at least pretend to be that they’d think of it? Or am I the only fucking intelligent person alive?

*I think.*

What if…it’s an age thing? Ha! Wow. That’s creepy. What if my inherited DNA is what conjures those images for me?

What is that? Iron? Wet, cold iron? And wet grass!!! In the summer.

It’s like olfactory charades.

And maybe…my generation found that as amusing as I do. It’s…a reference to heroin? You get hooked. A metal hook? Sleeping? Sleeping de Schiaparelli. Heroin was used in the 1920’s and 1930’s by rich people on occasion. Not like it was in the years after, but it was used.

Snuff de Schiaparelli? Salut de Schiaparelli.

So…snuff. (That’s tobacco) And salut. Salut meaning hello and goodbye, of course. So…it’s…drugs, sex and sadness? Ha! That’s what the Boomers would say.

Oh well. It might be a reference to heroin. But to me it’s just about…sadness. Sadness, horses and grass. Grass as in the sort that you feed to horses and that grows in people’s yards. I’m not dumb enough to use drugs. Think about what I mean. THINK!!! Oh you’re too narcissistic to? Shoot. …I mean use.

Read. READ!!!!

Ecusson

Notes according to Fragrantica: Top notes are Aldehydes, Lemon, Cassia Bourbon, Orris and Cassis; middle notes are Carnation, Ylang-Ylang, Rose, Geranium, Jasmine, Violet and Tuberose; base notes are Oakmoss, Sandalwood, Musk, Vanilla and Vetiver.

Year: 1948

I should probably buy a larger bottle of this perfume. It’s an excellent chypre. It’s very relaxing to wear. The carnation, oakmoss, tuberose, vanilla, violet, vetiver and geranium (?) are lovely.

I’m sure it’s supposed to be a scent of subversion but fuck that. I’m a straight woman. And never being married to a living man who can easily explain to me what the fuck they like…and why…I have no idea why this is sexy. So…what the fuckety fuck. I wear it because it’s…relaxing.

Why is it relaxing? Hmm.

It smells like an old book. It smells like an old man. And I find the thought of a handsome old man in a tweed jacket relaxing.

It also smells like the night air at the Nesheim farm in 1998…in early July.