RosaMilena Perfume Wardrobe and Profile

I adore Fresh Floral fragrances that are silky-smooth and neither too sweet nor too tart. I enjoy savoring the subtle complexity of what actually constitutes a great soliflore. I also like some of the Clean Floral Aquatics, but only if they inhabit the distinctly feminine side of the scent spectrum. I tend to enjoy a variety of fruity and refreshing green notes as long as they are not overtly astringent or acidic, or too bitter, and do not veer at all towards the masculine realm of the scent world. A well balanced and refined fruity chypre will be loved by me as well. I flatly detest gourmand scents saturated with sickly-sweet-overly ripened fruit, suffocatingly cloying vanilla, coconut, caramel, chocolate, milk, sugar, and/or drowning in a foul patchouli based broth. Heavily animalic doses of civet, leather, musk, castoreum, or anything with that grotesquely awful salty decomposing sea life accord is nauseatingly repellent to me as well.

My own apocrine glands personalize my scent with any perfume creation. I find that even the freshest or cleanest perfume becomes elegantly sensual in a deeply personal manner once it melds with clean, healthy, living skin and thus, I feel no need to drench myself in the simulated secretions of another species.

When I was in high school and college I used to wear such scents as My Sin, Chloe Narcisse, Chantilly, Red Giorgio, LouLou, Tresor, Magie Noire, Tabu, Ysatis, Bal a Versailles, Emeraude, Wild Musk, Ispahan, Volupte, Panthere, Coco, White Shoulders, Halston, Rumba, Nuit de Noel, and Oscar. My carefree, youthful-self absolutely reveled in such complex and heavily-animalic concoctions. My body chemistry and my tastes have evolved significantly through the years though. At this point in my life, an excess of indoles and/or bottom-heavy animalic bases rapidly descend into a sour, revolting miasma on me.

Some of my preferred notes are as follows: Neroli, grapefruit, hassaku, mandarin, kiwi, guava, lime, melon, peach, litchi, nectarine, orange blossom, peach blossom, green tea, violet, violet leaf, ivy, cactus, a light-handed tuberose, a fresh gardenia, honeysuckle, osmanthus, champaca, freesia, heliotrope, mimosa, peony, orchid, sweet pea, ylang-ylang, non-indolic-jasmines, roses, lily, waterlily, lotus, cyclamen, syringa, water hyacinth, apricot, plum, various berries, lilacs, saffron, and lily of the valley.

I love rich, luxurious woods, fresh grasses, orris root, and very light/clean musks laced with a touch of amber and the warmth of exotic spices. I especially enjoy a fine vetiver, sandalwood, cypress, cedar, or bamboo. I love to burn very high quality Japanese incense in my home. That being said, I dislike many perfumes with incense listed as a major component because the incense ingredients used in them are cheap, acrid, headache inducing, and remind me of Far Eastern Asian funeral rituals.

The same applies to the much vaunted "oudh" ingredient. I don't think there is a more beautiful scent than high quality kyara agarwood. A number of Japanese incense companies sell pure kyara incense and it is indeed the epitome of beauty, serenity, and meditative richness encapsulated in scent. However, many perfumes I have sampled with "oudh" listed as the major ingredient do not use this high quality kyara. I don't like them either from a bottle sniff, a tester card spray, or on my skin. I find that low-grade "oudh" is rankly hideous. It smells of a muddy, medicinal, putrid barn filled with hay, feces, and spilled turpentine.

I have no particular interest in longevity ratings since I feel that the ephemeral nature of perfume is a large part of its allure. The impermanence of life itself is what makes it so precious. So, I also observe that many of the most exquisitely beautiful scents are often the most fleeting. This only makes me treasure them all the more. Perfume reapplication is a lovely self-pampering activity anyway.

With regard to fragrances, I am as always, in search of an ever more profoundly beautiful, exquisitely fresh floral that is superbly blended, smooth, and elegant.

In closing, I list a few of my favorite quotes below.

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there
- Yasutani Roshi

Birth and Death are grave events;
How transient is life!
Every moment is to be grasped.
Time waits for nobody.
- Inscription on a Zen Gong

The 10 Virtues of Koh (Incense)
1. Promotes communication with the transcendent
2. Purifies the mind and body
3. Has a cleansing effect
4. Keeps one alert
5. Is a companion in solitude
6. Offers a moment of peace in the midst of chaos
7. When it is plentiful, one never tires of it
8. When it is scarce, one can still be satisfied
9. Effective, even when aged
10. Used daily, it does not harm
Source: Shoyeido Incense of Japan

We should not complain about impermanence, because without impermanence, nothing is possible. Aware of impermanence, you become positive, loving and wise. With impermanence, every door is open for change. Impermanence is an instrument for our liberation.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh