Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Pilar & Lucy "tiptoeing through chambers of the moon"

Stupid name? Check. Maddening grammar? Check. Silk flowers and a feather boa? Check.

Welcome back, ditzes.

I know, I know, just let it go. The bottle's cute! The name's quirky! Don't be such a snob! Yeah, well, I don't care. And this time round it's even worse, because I actually kind of like the fragrance. But will I buy it? Hell no. To pay for this bottle means that the silk-and-feather cabal win.

Not to mention that the bottle makes it look like it's all about roses and romance, which are the furthest thing from my mind when I wear this fragrance. My mother has a giant candle she keeps for Christmastime. She uses it mostly as a centrepiece and rarely lights it, which is why it's been present at every Christmas I can remember. She puts it on a low table in front of the fireplace, which is usually home to a raging fire. Without ever being lit, that candle can perfume the entire room in a cranberry, woodsy, piney, spicy, slightly waxy way.

That's exactly what this fragrance smells like to me. There's even a gourmand current running underneath, a jumble of delicious and warm foody smells like the aftermath of a fantastic dessert course. To me, this scent is the bit of Christmas you remember the rest of your life: a dreamy ambiance of decoration and family and food and warmth and happiness.

And I still wouldn't buy a full bottle due to the irk level of the packaging. Gah!

Verdict: Merry Christmas, depressing packaging. Ditzes.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Based on your posts, I think you might like Provocative Woman by Elizabeth Arden. I would use it myself, but for the sister rule...Hope you try it!

Eliza said...

Anon, I will absolutely keep an eye out for Provocative Woman -- I'm always up for a new suggestion, and if it redeems the Zeta-Jones, I'll give it a shot.

Lydia, that was absolutely sweet of you! Thank you! I promise to get back on the straight and narrow and start posting again; annoyingly, I did do a couple of tests over that month, but wrote the notes on Post-Its which then all got thrown out. Whoops. Shall be more careful in future! Say hello to Wickham for me, and I'm glad you're enjoying the blog!

Atia said...

hi, just wondering where you found Pilar & Lucy in London? I'm trying to find them so I can test them out, I think the names and packaging are fab..have just shelled out a fiver for a sample :s

Eliza said...

BoD, I actually think I got those via something like LuckyScents -- one of the sample services where you shell out for a couple of hard-to-get scents. It's not prohibitively expensive, but I'd tend to use them as a last resort. There also seems to be a thriving swap going on at MakeupAlley, though I've never tried it.

I know, I'm a packaging snob when it comes to P&L -- a hazard of a prior occupation, I fear. As for the scents themselves, a lot of it has to do with my scent association; the things P&L evoke for me are either things I reject now, or believe can be better represented in other scents.

That said, I honestly did like TTCOTM. And it's seasonally appropriate right now, so give that one a whirl at the company Christmas do.