REVIEW: Bond # 9, The Scent of Peace

Notes: Grapefruit, Black currant, Lily of the valley, Cedarwood and Musk.

Pros: Beautiful bottle; simple composition highlights the crisp fruit notes; and $2 from every purchase is donated to UNICEF.

Cons: May be too light for some.

Reminds me of: Reminiscent of the old Burberry for Women in the cream box and small round bottle.Development: A very linear composition.

Longevity: I had difficulty detecting it on my skin after 2 hours.

Sillage: My friends couldn't smell me an hour after applying half a sample vial.

Where can I buy it? Currently available for pre-orders, see BondNo9Fragrances for more info. $195 for 3.4 ozs or $120 for 1.7 ozs.

Bottleworthy? Ideal for bottle collectors and Bond enthusiasts.

The Bottom Line: If I've learned a thing or two about Bond fragrances it's that the artistry and creativity behind the compositions vary greatly. Sadly, I expected more from The Scent of Peace, something more dynamic, versatile and unisex. It's not that the fragrance is awful, it's actually very pretty, and something I wouldn't mind my teenage sister wearing, but when the price tag is as large as this one, I expect a little more. As this is the first fragrance with a charitable slant, wouldn't it have been nice if it was something anyone would want to wear?

The composition is very quiet to say the least...quiet and sweet. Nowhere to be found is the daring sexiness of HOT Always, the surprising originality of Chinatown, or rich gourmand notes of New Haarlem. SOP is a scent for warmer weather, easy-to-wear, and very, very, well, simple.

Rating (out of 10): 5

I tend to either love Bond scents or totally dismiss them. How do you feel?

TRIVIA: Name the Birthday Girls

THE WINNER IS....

Biagio69

Congratulations!
Send an email (including your mailing address)
to scenteur7 at yahoo dot com to claim your prize!

The answers are in orange below.
Sorry about the early Carolina error, I originally wrote "Spanish designer" but meant to have written "Spanish-speaking".

Who can match the designers with their birthdays? Match all three correctly and win a prize!

1) Born on August 14th, this designer shares a name with one of my favorite early 20th century female painters.

ANSWER: Lolita Lempicka

2) Born on January 8th, this Spanish-speaking beauty dazzled me with a vetiver version of her famous men's scent.

ANSWER: Carolina Herrera

3) Born on March 18th, she's taken over her mother's company and even has a fragrance named after her.

ANSWER: Camile Goutal

Please list your answers in a comment below! Trivia answers will be revealed on Monday April 24th.

Mother's Day Fundraising

Mother's Day is approaching. Katie, the brilliant author of Scentzilla and Seldom Nice Nowadays, had a fantastic idea of a mass-blog fundraising campaign that would take place upon Mother's Day (May 14th). For this purpose she created a site, Benevolent Blogging, that is currently located at this address, but as soon as the domain registration takes effect, you will be able to find it via benevolentblogging.com.

This is how it works:

For each comment left on the calendar date of Mother's Day, each blogger will agree to donate a specified amount to a chosen charity. The charities that were selected as preferred charities are FINCA International and Orphan Foundation of America.

FINCA International provides loans to low-income microentrepreneurs, focusing especially on women. From FINCA's website - “Of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty worldwide, women account for 70 percent. In the developing world, and even in the United States, a woman's chances of receiving credit are markedly lower than a man's, and yet, in an increasing number of families, the woman provides a substantial portion--or all--of the family's income." FINCA operates on a global level, with active programs in Latin America, Eurasia, Central Asia, and Africa. This organization receives CharityNavigator.org's highest rating of four stars, which you can view by clicking here. Because FINCA uses loans rather than grants, every donation adds to an ever-growing pool of funds to help these burgeoning businesswomen. The loans are set at market rates, which means they are not prohibitive or unreasonably hard to pay back. Many clients take pride in repaying their loans, and feel glad to know that their repayments will mean one more woman not unlike themselves will be able to successfully care for her children and her family.

Orphan Foundation of America "has served thousands of foster teens all across the United States. From teaching youth how to balance a checkbook, write a resume, and apply for that first big job, to testifying before Congress and State Legislatures, OFA has long been a vocal champion of foster teens... Each year OFA and its scholarship partners award more funding and provide a stronger safety net for those pursuing post-secondary education." OFA also received a four star rating from CharityNavigator, which can be viewed by clicking here. In addition to financial donations, OFA also has opportunities for knitters to donate the products of their artistry. There is additionally the option for women to join the Pink Panel, run by The Benchmarking Company, who will donate $5.00 to a scholarship fund run by the OFA each time a woman joins or fills out a beauty survey.

For more information, please read Katie's post on Scentzilla and join us on Mother’s Day as a blogger and as a commenter.

*copied with kind permission from Perfume-Smellin'Things

Sunset at Isla Morada

Tuesday night sunset on Plantation Key, the Florida Keys.

In the Florida Keys for the week, be back next weekend!

Have a great week, everyone!