I have this theory that guests who overstay their welcome after three days start to smell. I don't think it's an original theory, but more an old wive's tale - regardless, I started to smell the minute I hit the ground running in New York City. OK, cheese aside (yes, I know the saying means something different), I had a phenomenal four 4 1/2 days in NYC seeing old friends, new friends, and smelling my way up and down the island.

Since my conference was canceled (oh darn, no 8 hour day of perfume industry lectures?), I had no real set agenda. Armed only with this post from Now Smell This, my G1, and a subway map, I had a rather smelly adventure of my own. Though I never made it to Brooklyn to visit Christopher Brosius's gallery, I told myself it was ok in the end. This trip was about new smells, and boy did I find more than a few.

Where to begin? Ah yes, the fair isle of Manhattan. The home of city hipsters, upper east trustfunders, and every brand name you could ever hope to find, all in one place. What amused me, what bemused me, and what could I simply not pass up taking home from the Big Apple? Read on to find out.

We had a fantastic time at the Punk Rock Flea Market this past weekend, and had a wonderful time talking up the brand and spreading the word -- especially about our custom perfume services.

I don't have a lot of time before my NYC trip so I thought I'd leave you with two things: first, a taste of some of our new item photos from the always-amazing Angel Ceballos, and last but not least, some wonderful reviews of my perfumes from Beth, who we've now seen at a couple of craft shows this spring. Thanks so much for the feedback, Beth!

Until next week, enjoy the photos!

• Company: YouStinkSoap
• Release Date: Unknown
• Description: A blend of fig, amber, sandalwood and lemon. Soft, sweet and fruity with hints of musk. A vegan perfume with shea butter for extra moisturizing benefits. Approximately .15 ounce oval twist-up tube.

• Company: Guerlain
• Release date: 1919
• Category: Almost-chypre, floral
• Description: (From The Court) Mitsouko eau de parfum, the Guerlain scent that is unique, original and must be sampled by everyone who enjoys fragrance. It is the standard in chypres, with a bergamot top, peach, jasmine and rose in the middle, and a base of oakmoss, vetiver, pepper, cinnamon.

• Company: Thierry Mugler
• Release Date: 1992
• Category: Totally delicious (edible)
• Description: (From Basenotes) No flowers in this scent! Just a whole load of food: Chocolate, Vanilla, Caramel... Its uniqueness is what makes it so popular, but also the reason others can't stand it.

• Company: Arcana
• Release Date: Unknown
• Category: Bright green
• Description: (From Scent Scribbles) A sparkling pan-Asian blend of Indonesian ginger, Japanese yuzu fruit and Thai lemongrass, spiked with a hint of Indian black pepper. Your way is the way of perfume, Grasshopper.

• Company: Conjure Oils
• Release Date: Seasonal LE, Winter 2008
• Category: Spicy smoke
• Description: Irish Cream, wisps of cigar tobacco, the faint smell of the Yule tree and just a hint of the ubiquitous holiday scent of cinnamon and baking spices.

• Company: Mythos Mixtures
• Release Date: Seasonal LE, Winter 2008
• Category: Powdery mint
• Description: A powdery, cold, white ozone scent with just a hint of dirt and sharp peppermint.

Other than listening to Wilco all morning (and all last night, and the night before, and so on...), I've been perusing a lot of fashion blogs this weekend. Particularly, Some Girls Wander and The Cherry Blossom Girl. And while perfume isn't quite so vivid a piece of fashion as you might associate with clothing & accessories, it's still memorable, powerful, and worth more than just a passing mention or a site update. In short: this blog needs to be more.

The Challenge

I've challenged myself with a rather impossible New Year's resolution to review one perfume a week (if not more than that) in 2009. I'm jumpstarting it today, since I'll be in Detroit tomorrow to spend NYE with my boy and his friends. I'll be adding tags to the blog so you can browse the reviews easily. (It makes more sense than setting up a separate review blog.)

I'll be structuring them so they'll be easy to browse, read, and follow along. I probably won't tag by notes, but I will try to tag by category. And now, let the sniffing begin!

Christmas is finally over. I'm not really a holiday person, to be honest. But one thing is certain, there are always a slew of winter perfume updates to be had across the web and I'm starting to finally go through all of my samples that I've gathered and do some reviews, for a change. Eventaully I'll have a system for straight-up reviews, but 'til then, here are two recent(ish) fragrances from Moxie Beauty:

• Spiked Egg Nog: It's extremely strong ginger-vanilla in the vial. Has a nice warm wear with the vanilla (and amber?) base on dry-down, but unfortunately for me it's only a 2-hour perfume, at best. It's a standard holiday perfume that is pretty nice overall, otherwise. 2 stars.
• Colour Pink: Champagne: To me, this is Eleanor on speed. Its hopped up and bubbly strawberries are everywhere and paired with something really spicy that makes me think rhubarb (and ginger, perhaps), and is really intense in the vial. On dry-down it turns slightly more powdery strawberry and into a really lovely smell that reminds me of the Smarties candies (a really good thing, to be honest). But again, didn't last nearly long enough. 2 stars.

More reviews to come. I'd like to start keeping up with other perfumers again, so we'll see how diligent I can be. I have a decent stash of completely unreviewed (by me) decants, so that's a start!