Chinchilla

just received a travel-size of chinchilla from a friend. this perfume evokes my memory of linda nochlin’s apartment on the upper west side—or any glamorous older woman, for that matter. it’s autumnal; it smells like october twilight and walking past a pile of maple leaves a couple hours after rain, with sweet, spicy, funky flourishes. musky and sweet from the tonka and honey, and the pepper & cinnamon notes leave a little lingering spice in my nose. the animalic notes are just intoxicating—strong for my nose, straddling the line between clean and dirty or maybe shifting between the two depending on the angle i approach it. the florals are mostly lost on me, but maybe my palate isn’t refined enough to catch it. stinks so good! excited to see how it performs on my skin over time—if any notes are amplified or muted. edit: i finally figured out what it smells like! chinchilla is the smell of sticking your nose in a mink coat that your fabulous great-aunt sprayed her perfume on when she last wore it. antique store floral musk!

Chinchilla starts with a golden, thick and dripping honey. The aroma is so strong that I feel hungry and head toward the kitchen. Halfway out, I smell my arm again and stop in my tracks. How did that happen? From the initial gourmand flavor, the scent had metamorphosed into a little minx. Yes, it is animalic! I decided not to eat because now all I want, is to find a man that I want to purr and snuggle with under a cashmere blanket. I had a late start with this potion but hyrax, ambrette, castoreum, civet along with musk, now woke me up with a different kind of desire. After a while Chinchilla is becoming a cozy and warm scent completing the perfection with notes of bergamot, vetiver, oakmoss, carnation, rose de mai, playing beautifully together. A little of bit of cinnamon and white pepper adds spiciness, whereas beeswax, gardenia, nard himalayan (jatamansi), and my beloved tonka bean round up this cozy Sunday afternoon. Longevity and Sillage are delicate and very intimate.

Dawn Spenser Hurwitz is able to convey texture in a way I have never experienced in perfume. When I smell Chinchilla I FEEL soft fur and leather. It is an amazing trick. And when I wear this it makes me feel like a glamorous woman in the 1940s waiting to attend a show or an expensive dinner in New York. When I am really moved by a perfume it is difficult for me to pick out the notes. I would say animalic accords with honey and resins like labdanum.

IMHO, this is the best synthetic civet you can get. I love the honey-civet center of this perfume so much - enajyerdua describes it flawlessly as "very pretty piss". It's amazing in and of itself, but also does a great job to bump up the skank when put next to things that have lost their civet over the years, like (to my nose anyways) Jicky. Chinchilla is sold in a ton of different sizes and formats, so it is really easy to try.

Oh, this is a bit of heaven. It has the warm, pissy, animalic honey note that I have been hooked on since I fell in love with Tabac Tabou. It's a very intimate scent but it blooms beautifully as it warms on the skin. I'm in love.