Ormonde Woman - London calling

I remember being in London years ago and smelling Angel everywhere – on the tube, in shops, in pubs and restaurants. It seemed that everyone was wearing it. That happens sometimes with main brand scents – trendy, popular ones, good or bad, seem to dominate the air for a while. I suppose that’s what makes niche fragrances so appealing to me – you don’t smell like everyone else.
 
On another trip to London, my niche nose picked up a strange and beautiful scent on someone at Covent Garden. I didn’t have the courage to ask what fragrance they were wearing. What a drag! My mind kept drifting back to it – what was that perfume and where I can I find it? This was turning from bathtub-thinking to an obsession. Maybe I should go back to Covent Garden? “Again?” asked my husband.
 
To the relief of my family and friends, I caught the scent again on someone else a few days later, and this time I did ask. “Ormonde Woman” – cherchez la femme. I managed to get a sample before heading home. It wasn’t long before I had a bottle.
 
This is a dark, dangerous swooner. It opens with the spicy cardamom and  coriander and herby grass oil, which adds an unctuous, green note. Then an earthy, skanky violet appears along beside lush, indolic, white jasmine. And then, just when you start to get used to it, hemlock, that poisonous evergreen, shows up and gives it a heady note and a dangerous feel. The violet takes the sharpness off the hemlock before it goes into a rich woodsy, amber drydown.
 
Beautiful and bespelling, I wear OW anytime and while it is categorized as a feminine, it smells great on guys too – sharing is good, right?
 
Today we're adding Ormonde Woman to our fragrance sample offering. Samples are $6.00.