So yesterday was the birthday, and it started out ordinarily enough with breakfast at The Four Seasons (can fried Kobe pastrami with beet hash and sunny-side up eggs at The Four Seasons be considered anywhere approaching “ordinary”?) and then coffee with double chocolate shortbread cookies at Fran’s Chocolates (again, the question is begging), and I thought my day was going pretty darn great until there was a knock at the door.
I answered the door, and one of the guys from the building’s front desk handed me a package. From New York. From . . . ooooooh! Things just got a whole lot better:
Nothin’ says lovin’ like the words ‘Bergdorf Goodman’.
Since I hadn’t ordered anything (recently!) from the good ship Bergdorf, then that meant someone in my life (who has earned the title of Brand New BFF for at least the next six weeks) is apparently very good at surprises, not to mention the perfect timing of said surprises.
It takes some amount of forethought to get a secret package to land smack on the right day . . . and what a package:
*gasp!*
Chergui is the one Lutens I’d been yammering about enthusiastically for the past several months, yet for some odd reason, never actually got around to purchasing.
When I first tested Chergui back in February, I had this to say about it: “If you’re looking for an earthy, sweet scent with a swirl of Middle Eastern exoticism (rose, sandalwood, incense) across a stretch of American farmland (hay and tobacco leaf), then Chergui is going to be your new best friend.”
With a cherry on top!
Fave scent & beauty blogger (not to mention preminent Lutens groupie) The Non-Blonde sums up Chergui like this: “Chergui is an equal opportunity beauty. Not an androgynous unisex, but a scent that works beautifully on both male and female, creating an intoxicating atmosphere around its wearer without resorting to a gender cliché . . . this fragrance blooms beautifully in the summer heat.”
I wore it yesterday evening to the big dinner out with friends (it played nicely with the scents of deep red wine and rich, roasted food), and put some on today before heading upstairs to the building’s rooftop deck to sit for just a bit on a bench in the sun, and I have to say that I fully agree: Summer Heat + Chergui = Blooming Beautifully. As the sun hit my skin, Chergui radiated a hot, earthy sweetness in all directions.
“Who? Little ol’ me?”
Denyse Beaulieu at Grain de Musc recently posted a Top Ten for Summer 2009 list, stating outright that her favorite picks for hot summer weather were the big, bold fragrances, the ones that everyone else usually saves for winter wear: “There are really two schools of scenting in the heat: beat it with cool stuff, or fight fire with fire and bring on the heavy hitters. I am decidedly a member of the second school. Perfumes blossom on moist flesh: as they rise in the heat, they display more facets than at any other time of the year… Practically anything, bar the caramel-dipped gourmands – which I never wear in any season – is fair game for skin time in July.”
Her Lutens pick for summer was Santal de Mysore, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if someone walked through her door sporting Chergui.
“Did someone call for a bucket of fire?”
Listed scent notes are: honey, musk, incense, tobacco leaf, hay sugar, amber, iris, rose and sandalwood. I already have three Lutens fragrances — Ambre Sultan, Vetiver Oriental and Un Bois Sepia, but Chergui just effortlessly pole-vaulted over all three to land in my Lutens #1 spot.
***Note: a big shout-out to my brand new BFF for the bottle of Chergui. I’ve never had a birthday smell so good. As for what we had for dinner: 2 bottles of Krug Brut, 4 bottles of Napa Valley cabernet (Hundred Acre and Araujo), Idaho White Sturgeon Caviar, fresh Northwest oysters, escargot, beef tartare, caesar salad, bone-in rib eye steaks, ostrich filets, fresh lobster tail, sweet corn, asparagus, roasted portobello mushrooms, macaroni and cheese, and a finale of Black Forest cake with a bottle of vintage Dow port. Ay yi yi, we staggered out of the restaurant over four hours later, full of food, wine and good spirits — though I have to admit, I was finding it mighty difficult to wake up this morning.
