• Home
  • About Me
  • Comment Policy
  • Perfume Reviews by House

Muse in Wooden Shoes

A blog about stuff that interests me:: perfume, novels, poetry, family, etc….

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« STUFF. Christmas presents. Perfume divestiture. Giveaway drawing.
Winners of Drawing, Dec. 2009 »

Perfume Review: Teo Cabanel Alahine, or A Joyous Christmas Memory

December 11, 2009 by malsnano86

When I was at college, my university chorus group put on a Madrigal Dinner every year.  It was a longstanding tradition that our director would prepare us to sing eight or nine madrigals, and the students would be in charge of everything else. 
And I do mean everything else, from arranging to rent the ballroom to organizing costumes, meals, publicity and tickets, from creating an original play to obtaining the services of the medieval-music club for instrumental music and the fencing club for demonstrations, from learning medieval dances and extra pieces of music for serenading guests during the meal to preparing decorations, including fabric wall hangings, fresh evergreen garlands, and clove-orange pomanders, and placing the hangings and garlands in the 14-foot-high ballroom.  There are 50 students and twelve weeks in which to get everything done – Ready, Set, GO!  
 
We called it Mad Dinner, and those four evenings were some of the happiest of my life.  (They were also some of the most stressful, especially the year I was Costume Co-chair.  I think I still have a bald patch on the back of my skull from that experience.)  I loved it – every Mad minute of it.  Pure joy, from wandering minstrels to cloved oranges to funny hats to candlelight to beautiful music.
For me, Teo Cabanel’s Alahine is Mad Dinner.
 
Notes for Alahine:
Top: Lavender, bergamot, ylang-ylang
Middle: Jasmine, Bulgarian rose, orange tree, pepper plant
Base: Iris, cistus, patchouli, benzoin, vanilla, sandalwood, musk
I probably wouldn’t have gone after Alahine on my own – I like amber, but if you’ve read my posts about Opium you know how I feel about resiny Orientals (hint: I’d rather slide down razor blades than spend any time cooped up in a room with them).  I’d ordered a sample of Oha, a dark spicy rose chypre that I thought I’d adore, and a sample of Alahine arrived with it in that package from The Posh Peasant.  Oha I found very beautiful but eclipsed by the stunning L’Arte di Gucci, with which I had already fallen in love; Julia, a soft floral with tangy fruits in the top, is also beautiful in a wistful, innocent way that feels a little naive for me to wear at this stage of my life.  I wasn’t expecting to love Alahine, and in fact upon my first test of it, its opening notes skated close enough to “Citrus-aromatic-masculine” that I almost wrote it off then and there.  But by the end of an hour, I found it heavenly.  Upon second wearing, I knew I wanted a bottle.
If I am paying attention to the notes – to what I actually smell – Alahine opens with a zesty burst of lavender and bergamot, which is highly aromatic and therefore difficult for me.  I am coming to expect it, and I know all I have to do is wait ten minutes before a lovely, creamy ylang-ylang will appear and soften the aromatics to a level I enjoy.  Shortly after that, the curtain rises to reveal a floral heart so well-blended that I can’t tease out any note except rose, and then only because I’ve become familiar with the deep winey rose in Caron Parfum Sacre’ and Ormonde Jayne Ta’if.  Spices swirl around these abstract flowers, spinning down into the ambery labdanum that is weighty and smooth as a heavy gold-colored satin shawl.   The scent hovers over this rich amber for hours afterward, caressing it with vanilla and patchouli and benzoin, and wrapping it up with a resiny thread.  I don’t actually smell any iris, but there is the effect of something cool there that I think must be due to the iris – it does seem like satin, after all, rather than velvet.
If I don’t pay close attention to what my nose tells me, but lift my head and go through my day only registering my impressions, I smell this: pine branches, curried fruit, flowers, mulled cider, cloved oranges, candle wax, vanilla liqueur, and the very faint mustiness from a costume that has been stored in the basement under Old Cabell Hall for several months.  I sense candlelight, and laughter, and the faces of friends, voices raised in song, and the excellent feeling of hard work that has paid off handsomely. 
 
When I wear Alahine, I smell joy.
For a few other reviews of Alahine, click on these links:
March at Perfume Posse
Abigail at I Smell Therefore I Am
Brian at I Smell Therefore I Am
First image:  Natural  Christmas decorating! by LDHumes at flickr.  Second image: Medieval Group by tights&costumes at flickr.  No, it’s not my group, although we dressed similarly – I haven’t been able to find any photos of the Real Thing, probably because none of us could carry cameras in our costumes!
 
Madrigal Dinners produced by the University Singers of the University of Virginia are no more.  When Dr. Donald “Coach” Loach retired in 1994, they went by the wayside – seen, I think, as being too much work.  I raise a glass of mulled cider in honor of Coach, who was pictured recently in the alumni magazine, still looking his natty self in a pink polo shirt. 
 
(I hereby remind myself to someday post about the Kamikaze Tenors.)

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Floral oriental, Perfume review, Teo Cabanel | Tagged nostalgia | 5 Comments

5 Responses

  1. on December 12, 2009 at 1:16 AM Rappleyea

    I am so glad our Daisy casually mentioned that you have a blog – what a beautifully evocative post this was. I especially loved your general impressions at the end as I came away with a keen sense of the fragrance rather than just a listing of notes which may or may not end up smelling like I think they should. You definitely have made me want to order a sample of this. I love your writing and am very impressed that you're working on a novel – something which I would love to do some day. I for one eagerly await yours.


  2. on December 12, 2009 at 2:08 PM Mals86

    Oh, thank you, Rapple! I appreciate your stopping by to comment.Since I'm getting a bottle for Christmas 🙂 I can send a sample your way – probably after Christmas, because I'm so behind… if I don't get on the stick, my kids will get boxes of cereal as presents. (Taz would probably be happy with a big bottle of ketchup, though.)


  3. on December 12, 2009 at 10:04 PM Rappleyea

    Sounds great! And l'll pay attention here to figure out what I can send you in return. 😉


  4. on June 24, 2010 at 8:40 PM Ann N.

    Hi Mals, just stumbled upon this review of Alahine. What a fun and evocative post! Mad dinner, indeed!
    Are you still enjoying the Alahine or has it been put into hibernation until cooler weather prevails? I guess I really need to get off my duff and sample it, since so many people sing its praises. Anyway, thanks for a great read!


    • on June 25, 2010 at 6:42 PM malsnano86

      So glad you enjoyed, Ann – I did put the Alahine away in the cabinet for cooler weather, but was rooting around in there the other day and had to pick up the Alahine and give it a little sniff. Ahhhh. It was so terrific, I gave my elbow a teeny spritz before bedtime!



Comments are closed.

  • Wooden shoes tied with ribbon

    by creating in the dark at flickr

  • Why do the Graces?

    Why do the Graces now desert the Muse?
    They hate bright ribbons tying wooden shoes.
    (Walter Savage Landor)

    My work may be wooden shoes, but it will be wearing those bright ribbons anyway.

  • Recent Posts

    • Moving Back!
    • The moving truck is loaded up!
    • Tuesday Roundup: Serge Lutens Mini-reviews, Part 3
    • Scent Diary, Jan. 2 – 8, 2012
    • Tuberose Series Perfume Review #21: Amouage Honour Woman
  • Blog Stats

    • 339,846 hits
  • Categories

    • aldehydic floral
    • Amouage
    • Annick Goutal
    • Applause
    • Balenciaga
    • Balmain
    • Bath and Body Works
    • Blog housecleaning
    • book review
    • Bvlgari
    • By Kilian
    • Caron
    • Chanel
    • Chloe
    • chypres
    • Citrus scents
    • Clean scents
    • Coty
    • Create
    • Crown Perfumery
    • Dark Rose
    • Diane Von Furstenberg
    • Dior
    • Diptyque
    • Discontinued
    • Drawing
    • DSH Perfumes
    • Elizabeth Taylor
    • Estee Lauder
    • FAIL
    • Family
    • farm
    • fashion
    • Fendi
    • floral chypre
    • Floral oriental
    • Florals
    • Fragrance Throwdown
    • fragrant gifts
    • Frederic Malle
    • Fruity floral
    • Gianfranco Ferre
    • Giorgio
    • Gourmand scents
    • Green scents
    • Gucci
    • Guerlain
    • Hanae Mori
    • Harvey Prince
    • history
    • Holiday
    • Honore des Pres
    • i Profumi di Firenze
    • Il Profumo
    • Jean Desprez
    • Joint Blog Project
    • Kai
    • Karl Lagerfeld
    • L'Artisan
    • Lancome
    • Lanvin
    • Laura Mercier
    • Le Labo
    • Les Nez
    • Literature
    • Literature review
    • Liz Zorn
    • Lucien LeLong
    • Maison Francis Kurkdjian
    • Mariella Burani
    • Mary Greenwell
    • Mauboussin
    • Michael Storer
    • modern chypres
    • Moschino
    • music
    • NaNoWriMo
    • natural perfumery
    • Nobile 1942
    • Novel excerpt
    • Oriental
    • Ormonde Jayne
    • Oscar de la Renta
    • Packaging
    • Parfumerie Generale
    • Parfums de Nicolai
    • Parfums DelRae
    • Parfums Divine
    • Penhaligon's
    • Perfume review
    • Rant
    • Recipe
    • Recipes
    • Rochas
    • Rose chypre
    • Rose scents
    • Scent Diary
    • Seasonal picks
    • Serge Lutens
    • Shiseido
    • Smell Bent
    • Soliflores
    • Sonoma Scent Studio
    • Tauer Perfumes
    • Teo Cabanel
    • That's Just My Opinion
    • The scented life
    • Tom Ford
    • Travel
    • Tuberose scents
    • Ulric de Varens
    • Uncategorized
    • Vanilla scents
    • Victoria's Secret
    • Vintage
    • violet scents
    • White floral
    • Woody
  • Archives

    • November 2019
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
    • December 2009
    • November 2009
    • October 2009
    • September 2009
    • May 2009
    • April 2009
  • 30 days, 50,000 words = Novel!

  • Beauty and Perfume Blogs

    • Beauty on the Outside
    • Eau MG
    • The Non Blonde
  • Independent Perfumery Blogs

    • DSH Notebook
    • Sonoma Scent Studio
    • Tauer Perfumes
  • Other-than-Perfume Blogs

    • AGtually
    • Cake Wrecks
    • FLYlady
    • Help! I Need a Publisher!
    • Madwoman in the Forest (Laurie Halse Andersen)
    • NaNoWriMo
    • Notes From the Trail
    • Stuff Christians Like
    • Wardrobe Oxygen
  • Perfume Blogs

    • All I Am – A Redhead
    • Another Perfume Blog
    • Bloody Frida
    • Bois de Jasmin
    • Bonkers About Perfume
    • Chicken Freak's Obsessions
    • Eiderdown Press
    • Feminine Things
    • Grain de Musc
    • I Smell Therefore I Am
    • Katie Puckrik Smells
    • Memory of Scent
    • Notes From Josephine
    • Notes from the Ledge
    • Now Smell This
    • Olfactarama
    • Olfactoria's Travels
    • One Thousand Scents
    • Parfumieren
    • Pere de Pierre
    • Perfume Patter
    • Perfume Posse
    • Perfume Shrine
    • Perfume-Smellin' Things
    • Persolaise
    • Redolent of Spices
    • Scent of the Day
    • Scents of Self
    • ScentSate
    • That Smell
    • The Alembicated Genie (Formerly Scent Less Sensibilities)
    • This Blog Really Stinks
    • Undina's Looking Glass
    • WAFT by Carol
    • Yesterday's Perfume
  • Perfume Blogs (informational and/or technical)

    • 1000 Fragrances
  • Perfume Blogs (updated infrequently)

    • Confessions of a perfume nerd
    • Fragrance Bouquet
    • Hortus Conclusus
    • MossyLoomings
    • My Perfume Life (formerly Signature Scent)
    • Punkrockperfumeparty
    • The Left Coast Nose
    • The Unseen Censer
    • Vintage Perfume Vault
  • Meta

    • Register
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.com

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Muse in Wooden Shoes
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Muse in Wooden Shoes
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: