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Perfume Chat Room, April 3

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is April 3, and it is my sister’s birthday. I was able to talk with her by phone for a while, after my remote work day ended, and she is fine so far, and in good spirits, although her small town has had seven deaths from COVID-19. I am lifting my own spirits by starting a victory garden in my backyard, with help from my teenaged son. It’s a great way to get outside, get some exercise, avoid extra trips to the store (once my veggies come in, I hope!), relieve stress, and keep him busy! Added bonus: my garden is very fragrant right now, with a dwarf Korean lilac in full bloom, roses just starting, late narcissi still blooming. Update: by popular demand (okay, Brigitte MENTIONED it), I’ve added a photo of the raised beds under construction, with our dog Lucy posing in front. Doesn’t she look angelic? Sure, until she starts digging! I think I’ll have to put some light fencing around the beds to discourage her.

 

I also indulged myself in a 24-hour sale by indie perfumer House of Matriarch and bought one of their “quincunx” sets, which arrived this week! Can’t wait to play with my new toys! Right now, they are having a “buy one, get one free” sale on full bottles with the code SPRINGBOGO, so check them out! All self-indulgence aside, I do think it’s important to support local and small independent businesses when we can — these are very tough times for them. And I suspect that fragrance may be something many people will cut from their budgets when budgets get tight, so let’s support our independent perfumers if we can!

How was your week? Any new wearings of “not suitable for work” fragrances? I love the acronym that popped up in the comments last week: NSFW. This one isn’t NSFW, because I DO wear it to work, but it’s challenging for some people. I find it classic and weirdly comforting, just because it is so classic and familiar: Chanel No. 19. So it has gotten some skin time this week — with my decidedly non-elegant yoga pants. Here’s a silver lining for me: I’ve totally stopped wearing suits!

61 thoughts on “Perfume Chat Room, April 3”

  1. Happy Birthday to your sister! A victory garden sounds like a wonderful idea. I’m not familiar with House of Matriarch but am curious what your impressions of the set will be. No NSFW perfumes for me this week, but I’ve been paying more attention to some raw materials. Galbanum and hyraceum, for example—both very strong in different directions. (One bitter green, the other pungent animalic yet somehow warm and comforting.)

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  2. Happy birthday to your sister. April is also my birthday month but I won’t be celebrating. Trying to keep costs down and stick with essentials only. No new bottle for me, as it really is an unnecessary luxury at the moment. I am using what I have and thunking many 1 ml samples…. sometimes 2-3 a day. Wearing Pour Un Gimme on my neck as I find the lavender and vanilla combo very comforting. I will continue this for the upcoming week.

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  3. Change of plans.
    Putting sampling on hold to concentrate on bottles and travel sprays gifted to me by my fellow APJers.
    On the white shelf in my bedroom is Sunday, Cassis en Feuille, Paramela, Pure eVe and Selva do Brazil. I will try to stick with these for this week.

    Today I am wearing Sunday.

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  4. We have a vegetable garden too. Thankfully we both have work, although teh boyfriend has to do reduced work hours. I don’t have much to do at work, but our practice has to stay open. Today I first wore Empreinte, then Cabochard.

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  5. I’ve spent the last few days trying my discovery box from Shay & Blue. A lovely mix of hand cream, samples and travel bottles. Blood Orange, love it (this was a repeat purchase), Black Tulip – a big hit, Atropa Belladonna – nope, don’t need this, White Peaches – delicious. Need a travel spray of this one.

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  6. Lucy is a gorgeous girl. Has she got a fondness for fresh veggies? Some wire around your beds might just be a cunning plan. I wish I had green fingers, but unfortunately I’m not friends with my garden at all😂 My friend dug up a patch in back of her garden this week and she’s sowing some veg and potatoes. She’s thinking about getting some hens, too. I’m tired just thinking about that.

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    • Thank you for complimenting Lucy! She doesn’t like veggies but she does sometimes like to dig, so yes, I’m putting some cheap wire fencing around the edges of the raised beds (the same stuff that keeps her out of flower beds, very cheap at Home Depot and light green so it fades into the background). That will do for her, but I’ll have to get some netting to keep birds and chipmunks away once I have anything really growing.

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    • P.S. We had neighbors who kept chickens in their backyard in this city neighborhood. The hens laid beautiful eggs but it was a constant battle to protect the hens and the coop from marauding raccoons and possums.

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      • I don’t know where in the U.S. you live but over here we certainly don’t have any marauding raccoons or possums😀 Foxes, on the other hand, are the scourge of many a henhouse. And if you’re in the countryside, pine martins and mink are partial to the odd chook.

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  7. So here’s what I’ve planted so far: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, canteloupe, watermelon, onions, zucchini, squash, nasturtiums (flowers and leaves are edible, and very pretty), lots of herbs, lettuces. The ones I’ve grown before are tomatoes, zucchini, squash, nasturtiums, and herbs. I chose others that are supposed to be easy. I used to help my dad a lot in his very large vegetable garden decades ago, but in my own home I’ve mostly grown flowers.

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  8. Your vegetable garden will be fabulous! I dream of having a garden. I finally grew cherry tomatoes in pots last summer and it was amazingly easy and they did well. I love your Lucy! Give her a smooch from me. My dog loved going to my tomato plants last summer to eat a tomato or two that I’d pull off for him, he thought they were a treat.
    I wore a few NSFW perfumes last week and will continue to do so (Arpege, No 22, Salome, Flux de Fleur, Dioressence). There are no perfume purchases in my near future with the unknown with work, but I am blessed to have a vast collection and many samples and decants from Brigitte to enjoy. I am so happy to have my perfume mojo back after not enjoying due to stress and anxiety.
    Stay well and enjoy your gardening OH!

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  9. Having a brown thumb, I wouldn’t be doing any gardening even if we had any land for it, and living in a townhouse solves it for me. But I look forward to seeing your results later in the year.

    Lucy is beautiful (and of my favorite color 😉 ).

    I plan to wear Coco today to warm and brighten this rainy day.

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  10. Hey there OH and crew,
    WOO HOO! For the Victory Garden. We are creating a smaller version for greens only at my BFFs Dad’s place. He’s an excellent gardener and has a perfect fallow bed for it. Yours look so glam and professional. Can’t wait for progress reports.
    Jin just had a 6 day break from work. Normally that would be filled with up to 4 overtime shifts but they are trialling a new roster with four separate teams. It’s their response to the C19 pandemic. So if a team is short other members can’t come in to fill the gap anymore, they will just have to work harder at lower numbers. It’s a bit stressful for them all and Jin will miss the overtime pay. He gets on with everyone and is good at the job so he was the most popular replacement. Fingers crossed it works.
    I’m wearing old favourites and trying to empty some old decants. Life is very noice at this slower pace. Made an enormous spicy pumpkin and vegetable soup to keep us going this week. MMMMMM, its yum.
    Portia xx

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      • It’s been a very mixed bag. CHANEL Boy and Jersey, Guerlain Shalimar, Caron Bellodgia, Cacharel Liberté, MdO Vanille, 3 Fleurs by Parfum d’Empire and a few of the Neela Vermeire & Serge Lutens ranges have been making regular skin time.
        Finding nearly dried up decants and spraying the whole lot on at once has been fun too.
        Portia xx

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    • Oh I love that one. My friend had it some years back. There’s also a flanker to that one, it’s called Gucci Premiere I think🤔 The same bottle as your brown one, but in gold. Totally Suitable For Work, haha. It’s still available on the shelves so have a sniff if we EVER get out to the shops again!

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    • Glamorous! I wore this last weekend when the weather was warming up, I love the fruity spicy honey. I don’t get the patchouli that is described in the drydown, do you?
      I’m going to compare it with Gucci Guilty today, notes are described as somewhat similar.

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      • In the winter I smell the guava and the patchouli is a bit more pronounced. But with the warmer weather my skin picks up the tiara, honey and musk. Honestly, I was saving it for cold weather but I actually prefer it now in the heat.

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        • I’m wearing Gucci this evening, comparing Gucci by Gucci to Gucci Guilty, one on each arm. I can detect the patchouli in Gucci now, subtle and very nice. Honey is beautiful. Gucci Guilty is much more fruity.

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  13. Today’s weather is glorious which called for fruity and bright. AG Quel Amour is up to the task. A more unusual fruity floral imo. Been naughty this week, bought a few things. I promise, no more😊 Me being locked up with access to online shopping is a dangerous combo. But they were all bargains. No retail prices paid.

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      • Shay & Blue White Peaches travel spray. Delicious creamy peach. Cartier Baiser Fou. Lipsticky with white chocolate. Can’t get enough chocolate in me or on me at the moment ☺️ First Intense. Now discontinued. A fantastic aldehyde, in the ballpark of FM Superstitious. And one that I always get complimented on. All for less than a bottle of the FM.

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          • It’s a VC&A First flanker. Introduced in 2012, it was obviously not very popular as it disappeared in a short time. It doesn’t seem to be well known at all, few reviews on it, and they are mixed. Though aldehydes aren’t mentioned in the notes on Fragrantica it is gloriously aldehydic. It’s like a cousin of Hermes Caleche Soie or Superstitious, as I mentioned. I’ve been looking for a bottle for ages, as they don’t pop up too often. I had it a few years back and I used up my large decant quickly. I’ll be so happy to have a full bottle to spray lavishly. If you see it on any sites and aren’t afraid to buy unsniffed it might be worth a punt😉 If you weren’t in the U.S. I’d gladly send you a decant, but I know it wouldn’t make it to you. Put some feelers out.

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  14. Tomorrow I will wear Natura Amour America Paramela in honor of a good friend’s birthday. This is such an underrated and unknown gem. Citrus, herbs, honey and paramela wood from Brazil. The bottle is unique too. I just love it and am grateful to have it in my collection.

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