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 The prettiest part of any perfume is its top note. Of course, there is a trick to that. Top notes are invariably the most alluring part of any fragrance BUT they are also the most fleeting. Like getting caught in a mouse trap.
It’s ironic that some top notes are terribly strong when they first come out of the bottle. Almond, for instance, is a wild and overwhelming smell when you encounter it. I find myself thinking, “Good Grief, am I going to have to take a shower to rid myself of this HUGE broadcast?” Then it settles down to a glorious fragrance and carries me away on a magic carpet of sensual delight which *plop* ends abruptly when it totally disappears! It is gone forever within 5 minutes. I am always so sad when that happens but will always remember what delight tickled my soul as I took the first breath of almond.
Other top notes include: palmarosa, wintergreen and all of the mints, citruses, and cognac.
There is some serious controversy about exactly what is and what is not a top note, too. Some people say that petitgrain* is a top note, I disagree. To me it’s a middle note because it lasts a pretty long time. I say that chocolate and cognac are both top notes, other people classify them as base notes. I cannot get them to stick around. Clary sage evaporates around me, leaving not even a trace and so does melissa. I find vanilla is a middle note but I suspect that is because I love it so that it seems to disappear as my nose gets used to it.
One very strange note is violet. It’s really a bass note, it sticks around for a very long time but it has a surprising characteristic: the more you smell it, the more your nose is anesthetized! You utterly cease to smell it within a matter of minutes. That is a well known fact among perfumers.
Finally, orris root is used as a fixative and I consider it a bass note BUT not everyone agrees with me and some respectable perfumers classify it as a middle note. Since it does smell similar to violet, maybe it’s pulling the violet disappearing trick.
It is possible to create meltingly beautiful perfumes out of only top notes, or middle notes, or bass notes; and sometimes that is the only way to get the effect that you seek. Adding a bit of lightly scented or complimentary musk to the blend will help these fleeting fragrances stay a bit longer, but even so they will evaporate fairly quickly leaving behind only the sweet memory of their savory impression.
*Smells a lot like neroli or orange blossom.
Coming in June to coincide with the Ancient Egyptian Collection another exciting chapter in the Quest for Kohl! Those dark ringed eyes that we all crave, that most sexy of sexy looks. The ecstasy of such smoldering eyes. How do you get that look? I embarked on my own journey last year and did find some great eyeliners but time marches on and I found out even more, including my favorite place to buy kohl (or some people call it “waterline eyeliner”). So, sign up for the blog so you don’t miss out on The Quest for Kohl!
Let’s say you inherited your dear Aunt Mahidabelle’s favorite vintage pen and it’s a lever filler (like the one pictured above). You dunk the nib of the pen in ink, pull out the lever, let it snap back, take out the pen and that is how you fill it with ink. Unfortunately, it does not write for very long because it just doesn’t hold much ink. So you get frustrated and put it back in its box because you don’t need a pen that only writes for one page.
But wait! You actually haven’t filled the pen to its capacity. There is a trick to filling a lever filling vintage pen to its capacity and you will be amazed at how much more ink it holds than you think it does. Here’s how:
- Immerse the nib in ink up to the very beginning of the grip so you are sure to have the filling hole submerged.
- Pull the lever forward and let the pen sit there in ink for one second.
- Repeat the second step above 9 times.
- Allow the pen to sit in the ink (after you have pumped it 10 times total) for 10 full seconds.
- Done!
Now your pen will hold four to five times more ink than it ever did in the past. It will astound you by how long it will write for you. At this point you should be careful of the ink color you choose, you will be writing with it for a looooong time!
This piece of advice was kindly given to me by Mauricio Aguilar at www.vintagepen.net who specializes in beautiful old fashioned pens expertly restored and some modern hybrids of his own invention.
 Let’s talk candidly about scented inks. In about 100% of the cases, I have filled my pen with scented ink and written away being happy in the lovely fragrance which surrounds me. However, no one ever comments on the scent when they receive the letter I so carefully crafted. Why? Because the fragrance has evaporated when the ink dried and so you don’t smell anything by the time it gets to you. Boo hoo!
I think the whole point of scented ink isn’t to really have your recipient get the aroma, it’s for you to be amused by the fact that you are writing with a perfumed ink.
You will get more mileage out of scenting your stationary instead. The fibers in paper have more of an absorptive capacity and if you put your favorite fragrance on a cotton ball and put it in a plastic bag with your stationary, the writing paper will become delicately scented and remain so for quite a long time.
However, I am not totally ruling out the possibility of an improvement in the longevity of scented inks. One company has a PLETHORA of them from which to choose. deAltramentis is the name of the company and they make literally hundreds of different scented inks, in a wonderful array of colors. You can get samples of them from Goulet Pens in Virginia. I am holding out hope for their Ylang-Ylang scent (being a perfumer, I think that one is great for its unusual color {a pinkish beige} and the fact that they DO have the exact fragrance of ylang-ylang in the ink). Field of Flowers is another which might yield the desired extension of fragrance. Here is a link to the Fruits and Flavors category at Goulet Pens, but do explore the other classifications of scented inks there, too. There are Flowers and Plants as well as Wine and Whiskey scents! What will they dream up next?
 If you think that the world of fountain pens hasn’t changed since 1947, you are in for a big surprise. Pen collecting is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the US right now, and the makers are keeping up with the quest for new and improved very nicely.
Here are some of the characteristics that are prized highly in 2012, as tastes have shifted over time:
Big Pens-Collectors have a marked preference for big pens and if that makes them heavy, that’s OK as well. The Montblanc 149 is a great example of “the perfect pen circa 2012″. The attractants here are: large ink capacity, a conspicuous luxury item which isn’t as big as a car, the finish on the product and the fact that the size shows off embellishments nicely, a huge nib that goes along with a huge pen (and if it is gold, that is great), and the obvious sign that the most important guy in the room has the biggest pen and his signature means the most.
Broad Nibs-People want to make a statement when they write something. As we live in a computer age, actual ink on paper becomes a rarity and underlines the importance of any correspondence we receive which is real correspondence on paper. So, a broad nib gives a bigger and more impressing narrative, makes your words stand out, and allows you to deliver your thoughts with a flourish. TWSBI makes a wonderful pen which is big and has an exellent broad nib, and the model I recommend is the 540.
Flex Nibs-The other sort of writing style that is catching on in a big way is flex nib writing. This is a point which will go from hairline to double broad as you push down on the pen. It is beautiful with a copperplate calligraphy handwriting. Using a flex nib to its greatest advantage takes a good deal of practice though, and you might want to buy a cheaper one to start practicing with before you invest in a $300 Mabey-Swan. Noodler’s makes a good beginners’ flex pen, if you are looking for big ink capacity, you can’t go wrong with the Noodler’s Ahab pen.
If this little article has whetted your interest, then check out more detailed information at Goulet Pens or isellpens. Goulet and Isellpens are top notch retailers, the former is famous for their full service website and isellpens consistantly is the very lowest price dealer. Both have great customer service.
 There is a group in Cincinnati which is devoted to promoting and keeping the tradition of fountain pens alive and it’s called the Porkopolis Penners. I just put up their blog for them so go there and take a look. It’s very interesting. I hope that some of the members will be writing articles about: the great pen companies of the past in Cincinnati (there were quite a few of them), how to go to a flea market and score some wonderful pens, what some of the new and great fountain pens are (many under $50, too),paper, and ink too. So take a trip to a slower and more graceful time, in a graceful place like Cincinnati. Explore Porkopolis Penners.
Kale chips are easy to make and have turned into a real favorite. They come out crispy and crunchy and are so much better than potato chips.
Preheat oven to 300 deg and lay down aluminum foil on one or two cookie sheets.
Get a bag of kale, put it in a salad bowl for tossing with a small amount of olive oil in the bottom of the bowl. Toss with a sprinkle of salt. Spread the kale out on a cookie sheet (or sheets) as a single layer and bake at 300 deg F for 20 minutes.
The kale will flatten out and look like it’s totally dessicated but don’t despair. It comes off tin foil very easily with a spatula and so put it on your plate and enjoy it.
I am a perfumer and I pay great attention to all of the smells around me. All of them. I dissect them and learn them, I file them away in my head for later use and I love my powers of smell. Not all smells are good but …I am happy that I can smell, not everyone can.
One night I went to a concert at Cincinnati’s venerable Music Hall. I walked down the aisle on my way to my seat and I was astounded by the variety of scents around me. There wasn’t much perfume to be smelled, none that I could detect actually (and I wasn’t wearing any at the time) BUT there certainly was a symphony of smells from humans: bodies which had been showered in the morning but not washed since, the smell of dentures and bridges which needed to be scrubbed, the smell of normal breath, the occasional animal scent which escapes from time to time, sulfur from gas and ammonia from living, indole from the usual source. And there was wet dirty carpet. It was a sorry cacophony of scents, my friends. I wished I had put on a drop or two of perfume to save me from the Natural Fragrance of my fellow men.
I work out every day. No one at the gym smells particularly bad (except one guy but he isn’t there all of the time). Everyone else is clean though sweaty, and started the day well groomed. However, in the middle of Zumba class there are things which go off in the back of my head which say,”Oh, you are still not so far removed from your monkey ancestors…get a load of that smell! Heh!” Uhhhh. Like I said, no one stinks but it’s there. That wet dog smell. You wrinkle your nose a bit and hope it wasn’t really there, but it was there.
Just when I was seriously considering dragging this thought up to the front of my mind a woman twirled by me leaving behind a trail of some sort of body product. It was light and “clean” smelling, not great creative perfume but just what it was. I was so very relieved. It was a great respite from the heavy wet smell of my fellow Zumba-ites. I almost shook her hand. Perfume, every once in a while perfume is JUST what you want.
Every once in a while I encounter an angry anti-perfume person. I listen to them and privately I wish their house to be surrounded by the sweet smell of honeysuckle in the summer, by the strong and beautiful scent of pine and snow in the winter, I wish for them to be enveloped in the scent of lilacs in the springtime, pumpkin pies cooking in the fall and may the rest of us never never be deprived of the pleasure of perfume.
 I have been maintaining my weightloss for 11 months now and here are some of the ways I have done that.
First, don’t eat between meals. Yes, you get hungry. What do you do, get busy with something else. Trust me, you can put off snacking until you forget and then it’s time for lunch.
Second, go easy on the soft drinks and on the alcohol. We all have been warned about alcohol being high in calories. Beer is particularly notorious, but so are the mixed drinks with sugar in them. But, don’t think that because something is soft that it’s OK to chug down. If it has sugar in it, it’s not OK in unlimited quantities. I try to confine my mid day beverages to soda water or water. This is really a good and prudent thing to do.
Third, take a real good look at the menu. We had to go to Bob Evans as part of a family ritual and that is one place where the calories are just piling up as you look at them. There is one offering which is called the “Itty Bitty Trio of Sandwiches” Three tiny sandwiches, how cute. 1,134 CALORIES!!! Wow, that’s almost as much as I can have all day long to maintain my weight. My eye went down that menu. 500, 600, 700, 800, + Wow, just WOW! So much syrup, so many carbs, so much grease. There are, however, a few good options for puritans like me. A spinach salad with Craisins and low cal dressing was in the ball park at 389 calories for that serving. It even had several pieces of boiled chicken breast for protein and satisfaction on top. OK, I was urged to get the Belgian Waffle with an acceptable calorie level to it, but the salad had everything I wanted and looked and was great. That kept me going to dinner.
Fourth, you can have desert, just don’t have the MAMMOTH PORTION. I got a small slice of Key Lime Pie and lived to tell the tale. It was sane and I got to choose it before it was brought to me. My dinner partner got hot fudge sundae when they ordered cherries jubilee. They ate it. All of it. Oh dear. The pertains to fast food. I got a kid’s meal and ate it all. I was satisfied but didn’t gain weight.
When I got home, I stepped on the scales the next morning and actually was down about a pound! So, you can travel and can have fun and treats without putting on another dress size.
I think the big trick is not to make eating the central locus of all that is going on around you. Easier said than done, we live in a society where eating is to be alive and everyone is vying to feed you (for love and money). Once you decide that eating isn’t the most important thing you are doing, your life is also much more enjoyable.
So, good luck on the road this summer. Just don’t obsess about eating, choose protein rich low calorie menu items, try eating off the kid’s menu when on the road, don’t eat between meals and you will be able to maintain your hard won weight loss.
Weight loss is your investment, you worked hard to get there and if you go back to business as usual, you are going to be right back to where you were when you started.
A tree peony blooming in my backyard.
In keeping with the Medieval theme for spring, I have been adding some comments on your receipts in a Medieval script! The form I chose is called “Uncial” and is pronounced “un-shal” or “un-see-al”. It is the hand that is used in just about every monk’s manuscript and was developed to be readable and make the best use of the space on precious vellum.
You will notice that the letters are very rounded and there are no capitals, “i’s” are not dotted and the letters are fit up closely together. Some of the letters look like the capital form in regular handwriting, for instance: B, E, F,G, K, M, O, R, S, U, V, W, x, and Z.
The letters which are particular to Uncial script are: A, D, F, G, H, M, Q, T, and the W. They do vary from the modern interpretation of them and are very beautiful. Each has special rules you have to follow. For instance, the F has to have the lower cross stroke sit on the base line; M has to be very rounded, and T starts off like a modern T but quickly rounds its back and turns into that beautiful Medieval letter.
If you want to try your hand at Uncial, it’s easy to start. Get an italic pen (one with a squared off tip), you can usually find those at hobby shops. Of course you need ink and paper. Then all you have to have is patience.
Remember to hold your pen at a 45 degree angle and copy the letters. Practice makes perfect here. Keep the letters closely spaced in a word and use several strokes for each letter. Pretty soon you will be a good calligrapher. Practice by writing out your grocery lists in Uncial so you get familiar with it and can write a bit more quickly, then practice in earnest and slow down. I find that going between letter form and speed is a great exercise toward getting your mind used to a new form of handwriting.
Have fun!
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Top Notes and Their Secret
It’s ironic that some top notes are terribly strong when they first come out of the bottle. Almond, for instance, is a wild and overwhelming smell when you encounter it. I find myself thinking, “Good Grief, am I going to have to take a shower to rid myself of this HUGE broadcast?” Then it settles down to a glorious fragrance and carries me away on a magic carpet of sensual delight which *plop* ends abruptly when it totally disappears! It is gone forever within 5 minutes. I am always so sad when that happens but will always remember what delight tickled my soul as I took the first breath of almond.
Other top notes include: palmarosa, wintergreen and all of the mints, citruses, and cognac.
There is some serious controversy about exactly what is and what is not a top note, too. Some people say that petitgrain* is a top note, I disagree. To me it’s a middle note because it lasts a pretty long time. I say that chocolate and cognac are both top notes, other people classify them as base notes. I cannot get them to stick around. Clary sage evaporates around me, leaving not even a trace and so does melissa. I find vanilla is a middle note but I suspect that is because I love it so that it seems to disappear as my nose gets used to it.
One very strange note is violet. It’s really a bass note, it sticks around for a very long time but it has a surprising characteristic: the more you smell it, the more your nose is anesthetized! You utterly cease to smell it within a matter of minutes. That is a well known fact among perfumers.
Finally, orris root is used as a fixative and I consider it a bass note BUT not everyone agrees with me and some respectable perfumers classify it as a middle note. Since it does smell similar to violet, maybe it’s pulling the violet disappearing trick.
It is possible to create meltingly beautiful perfumes out of only top notes, or middle notes, or bass notes; and sometimes that is the only way to get the effect that you seek. Adding a bit of lightly scented or complimentary musk to the blend will help these fleeting fragrances stay a bit longer, but even so they will evaporate fairly quickly leaving behind only the sweet memory of their savory impression.
*Smells a lot like neroli or orange blossom.
Coming in June to coincide with the Ancient Egyptian Collection another exciting chapter in the Quest for Kohl! Those dark ringed eyes that we all crave, that most sexy of sexy looks. The ecstasy of such smoldering eyes. How do you get that look? I embarked on my own journey last year and did find some great eyeliners but time marches on and I found out even more, including my favorite place to buy kohl (or some people call it “waterline eyeliner”). So, sign up for the blog so you don’t miss out on The Quest for Kohl!