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B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful’s BREATH OF GOD is a perfume that is unique and beautiful for both men and women combining smoky scents, sandalwood, amber, neroli and patchouli with rose, lemon oil, floral notes and jasmine. Perfumer Simon Constantine created Breath of God after a trip to Tibet wanting to create a perfume that was a return to the simpler way of Life. Breath of God was reportedly developed after Constantine created two separate scents on this theme, Inhale for women (uplifting neroli, refreshing bergamot, stimulating violet leaf and exotic jasmine) and Exhale for men (warming amber, soothing sandalwood and stimulating patchouli ) and decided they would work well combined.

I love B Never, in the same way I adored Cosmetics to Go, and grew to love Lush. Ginger by CTG is still one of my favourite perfumes and indeed I still have a bottle squirrelled away from *cough* 17 years ago (hmm, maybe I should replace). But B Never fragrances and I have never really got on. All of them seem to distill down to one very sweet B Never note, instantly recogniseable, but never quite what the perfume is actually supposed to smell like. The only B Never scent that didn't do that was Om... which smelt of curried cabbage.

However, with the news the B Never are going to cease trading, and a 5 star review of Breath of God from Luca Turin, I thought I'd give this a shot.

First impresssion THUNK, like being hit in the face with the entire B Never store in Carnaby Street. Its a massive, fluffy floral, and exactly the same feeling as most of the other range.

However, don't let that put you off, because after a while it settles down and becomes far more subtle, with the sandlewood and citrus notes shining through. This is not a fragrance for the fainthearted, as it is a bit "shouty" to start with but it becomes incredibly warm and the notes seem to shift continually.

The duality between the "inhale" and "exhale" shines through, it is both masculine and feminine, which means I would be happy to wear it for all sorts of occasions. I'd suggest that its applied very sparingly, a little goes a remarkably long way, but it lasts on my skin beautifully, after nearly 5 hours I could still smell it.

You can still buy it directly from the B Never site, alternatively, if you're not sure if you'd like it, you can get a sample here.

Tags: b never, year of perfume

You could argue that writing about perfume is a bit like dancing about architecture. Smell can be fleeting, ephemeral, whilst body chemistry can skew things out of all proportion. MovieMom used to claim that Chanel No. 5 smelt "like cats" on her, whilst for me, Dior's Poison smelt like bubblegum. (This is not necessarily a bad thing, Poison was not made for my 20 yr old self, although it was perfect for my friend Maria, 5 ft 10, Cypriot, flaming auburn hair, goddess made flesh, damn her...)

Yet I've always been intruigued by scent. After a brief dalliance with Lentheric's Tramp in my late teens (yes, bought by a boyfriend...) I moved on, swiftly, to Rive Gauche, then Jazz, LouLou and Ysatis. My first niche fragrance was Cosmetics To Go, Ginger, a bottle I still have, but use sparingly now.

I stopped wearing perfume of any sort when I became pregnant with Faun as I couldn't handle any strong smells, and then in the mire of depression, there seemed no point in smelling pretty.

Climbing out of the wreckage of that, along with my marriage, I sorted out my wardrobe and makeup, but scent was still missing, and it was only a couple of years ago, when wicked wicked LJ friends introduced me to BPAL that I started to think about perfumes again.

I have a hell of a nose, a veritable rudder. Strong scents, brutally applied can knock me for six. I can still smell Matt's BPAL on his skin at the end of the day, long after he's thought it has worn off. Clinique's Aromatics Elixir can stop me short in my tracks when shopping, MovieMom's favourite perfume for the last years of her life.

I have BPALs that I wear to help me sleep, and some that I use like a comfort blanket when I'm feeling shaky. Recently I've been on a total BPAL frenzy that was only halted when Christmas came along and I had to spend my disposable cash on my best beloveds.

Its ironic that I've decided that this year of Operation Knock Up should also be my year of perfume. Using this as a good starting point, and with the help of The Perfumed Court, I plan on smelling and reviewing as many perfumes as I can this year, or at least until I become pregnant. I will review BPALs along with more mainstream perfumes as that's an obsession that won't go away (and also there are no BPAL reviews in the guide, which saddens me). I'm hoping that the precision needed to review scent may help me in other writing, both in terms of discipline and style.

And yes, I recognise this is a mad project, in a long line of mad and obsessive projects. I'm fine with that.

Hope you enjoy what will come next ;)

Tags: year of perfume

So 2009 is most definitely over and I think its fair to say I spent a LOT of it playing games. Possibly more than any year previously. The combination of Faun getting a DS for Xmas 2008, moving in with Matt and having a working Xbox and PopCap once again creating utter time vampires of gaming have probably all contributed to my lack of writing last year. (Oops)

So here, better late than never is my Top Six Games of 2009. It was going to be Top Five, but something sneaked its way in at the last minute and was worthy of a mention.

( Cut because of youtube and extensive game glee )

Incidentally, if you want proper games reviews, go and pay Yahtzee a call over at Zero Punctuation

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I have paid the money and filled in the online questionnaire.
Wheels are in motion for the divorce to finally go ahead. Please pray to whatever gods you believe in, that TCIM is not a dick about all of this and lets it all go through post-haste.

I'll keep you posted on that one, eh?

Tags: deeeyeveearghohceeeee

Atomic Magenta, apparently. Note use of pashmina to hide dye stains on neck *headdesk*

Yes, this is the Gwen Cooper haircut, but its more bouffy than Gwen's thanks to fringe mismanagement. Whole lotta Hair!Fail recently....

Tags: hair, self-aware