muninnhuginn | House of Mirrors

Since glitterboy1 expressed an interest and so I don't forget what's tried and tested, herewith some thoughts on House of Mirrors:

Antique amber frames a series of distorted, eternally warping clear crystal and glass notes.

I thought yesterday before my little trip into town that I'd wake my nose (and possibly brain) up before leaving the house and decided on House of Mirrors: a chill like yesterday's needed complementing with something of crystal and glass. It's quite light, tho' with a distinct presence, when the bottle's opened. Not a hint of floral or pretty. It's got something masculine about it--a civilized, urbane, precise, smart man about town, who uses a straight razor to achieve his clean-shaven look, maybe with sideburns or a goatee, is guaranteed to have a neatly-pressed handkerchief in his pocket, and his sabre carefully stored away at home--but not in an overpowering testosterone-driven way. Fastidiousness in a bottle.

Worn, at first it's sharper still, not acidic (although there's a hint of something lemon-y) but cutting. So I go out, and as I warm up, it becomes plain that I'm wearing something more akin to aftershave than eau de parfum. I wander into town feeling like Julie Andrews as Victor (without the voice, naturally). (It's a good thing M has little sense of smell or he'd wonder who I'd been seeing--except this gentleman would be exactly that, I suspect.) If I caught a whiff of this on a passer-by I'd watch them like a passing Caterham 7.

I continued wandering around with an invisible escort until I got home and went out again, for any aroma to be drowned in the stench of swimming pool fumes.

By the time I'd got home it had definitely warmed, mellowed, but had gained no hint of sweet or flowers.

Today, it's lingered (I bet my gloves still carry its traces) faint but clear, a memory of an assignation that never happened.