Saturday, September 25, 2010

Vietnamese new style cuisine


I deepfried the Vietnamese chip and also some Sesbania grandiflora flowers and for sweetness, use a passiflora or Akebia or Descainea pulp mixture.

Buddhist Flower of the other shore, Higanhana

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Fragrance Profiling at Penhaligon's


This is the result from my fragrance profiling at Penhaligon's. I am glad that Nazrin at the Perfume Shoppe in Vancouver also chose this one for me. The scent is beautiful and suits me well.

Dear Victor,

Thank you for taking the time to answer the questions in our online Fragrance Profiling Service. Your answers were interesting and illuminating. I would like to recommend the scents pictured below and explain why I have chosen these particular fragrances for you. I trust you will enjoy my choices and choose a Penhaligons’ fragrance that is perfect for you.

Two fragrances for you Victor, one a wonderful tropical scent thick with banana, spiced oils and milk, the other a swirling dark coffee tinted wonder.

My first choice may be a risk. You said you have moved away from the sweeter side of things but i want to tempt you back with something not sweet exactly, but sticky and tropical with libidinous notes rising and falling as it engulfs the skin. Amaranthine was launched last year to critical acclaim and client love/hate. It is a challenging fragrance. I LOVE it, love the way is dirties up the skin, love its confrontation, from its plantation banana leaf and cardamom oil top to its fleshy ylang heart and the soothing milky drydown. Every moment of this journey is wonderful. This scent is decadent but intensely private too, everything seems to contradict and harmonise at the same time. I love its seemingly prim and proper surface and the dark sensual forces swirling beneath. It sends out a coded warning.....beware, beneath my tailored exterior, savage waters run. So clever and vibrant, shimmering with stifled emotions and unspoken desire. Amaranthine is not for everyone, it is cutting-edge fragrance at its best, but if you fall for its charms, it will sweep you away.

My other choice is very different. A soft, swirling coffee-tinted scent called Endymion. It is semi-oriental fragrance built around a gorgeous latte style heart with fragrant nutmeg, sage, mandarin and a spicy undertow. It feels velvety and very sensual on the skin, all the elements smoothing into moonlit strolls in soft lit gardens, everything glowing in the moonlight. It is sweet, but gently so, as the skin warms up, mysterious resins rise up with hints of creamy musks and cardamom, all wrapped in the softest of leather. Endymion just works, smells fantastic and will add something a little different to your scent wardrobe.

I hope you enjoy exploring these fragrances further and find something that fits you. Have fun and do let me know how you get on.

Kind Regards

Alex Musgrave

Saturday, September 11, 2010

European goodies




Thank you so much for my friend Sawako who brought back so many goodies from France. The Laduree cookbook on sweets is beautiful and I will follow the receipes to make wonderful macarons and cakes. The french candies are all very sophisticated, especially the Forestines, I had tasted them when I was very small. This brought back very sweet memories of childhood's goodtime.
I think we had great time exploring the niche perfumes. Thank you again.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Aristolochia tentaculata



This beautiful vine is finally flowering after I cultivated it for almost 7 years. Aristolochia tentaculata is nice and I have the first flower today, and a lot more to come.
I am sketching it along with Aristolochia gibertii which I have never painted.