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 Friday, November 20, and Thanksgiving is next week! Do you have any special plans, given that the CDC is strongly discouraging travel and large family gatherings? One friend of mine with young adult children who no longer live at home has rented a beach house for the week, with elaborate plans for home tests for COVID-19 and a few days of “podding” in quarantine with family meals taken outside. The young adults are traveling by car. If my children lived far away, this plan would tempt me! But two of mine live at home, and the third is at college close by (he’ll return home on Monday for the end of semester, including remote exams, and then for the duration of winter break, as his college won’t reopen until the last week of January.
Our Thanksgivings have mostly included just the five of us anyway (with an occasional friend in need of turkey), since both my husband’s family and mine are based in New England. With two fulltime jobs and three kids, it was never a holiday for which we were willing to travel, after moving South. And the weather here is often very beautiful at Thanksgiving — cool, crisp nights with clear, sunny days. I still have roses blooming!
It’s definitely the season for autumnal fragrances, though. I took out Clinique Wrappings yesterday, which really suited the weather. I’ve been wearing L’Ambre des Merveilles quite a bit, and different versions of Cabochard. What are your favorite autumn scents?
Lastly, what makes you thankful in this weird year of 2020? This blog started out as a way to practice more mindfulness (“Serenity Now”) and occasionally I have posted about “What Went Well“, a gratitude exercise. I’m thankful that my friends and family have mostly stayed safe and well; I’m thankful for one daughter’s recovery from COVID-19 after a relatively mild case; I’m thankful that my children are all here in the same city. I’m so thankful for the dedicated healthcare workers who are showing up every day to help the rest of us. And I’m thankful that so many people drop by this blog to read, whether or not you comment! Thank you!
Featured image from AARP.org; let’s hope they all use hand sanitizer, too!
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
Very nice post OH, Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you have a wonderful holiday at home with your family. To remember to be grateful is most important as we navigate difficult times. We also will be home, and I plan to enjoy beautiful nature hiking with my dog. I’ve been exploring vintage perfumes and have had the pleasure of wearing Cartier Must, Dior Dune, EL Private Collection, and Jill Sanders 4. The depth of these past creations suit the cooler weather and create the most beautiful scent cloud.
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Ooh, you’ve been smelling wonderful! Nature hiking with your dog sounds perfect; we may have to explore that option too. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Thanksgiving is not a thing here in Germany. But I am grateful that my family is still healthy, even if I haven’t seen them since last Christmas. I wore Vintage opium today, so I had happy memories of my early student and clubbing years.
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Recently I’ve been loving Vespero by Jeroboam, a smoky, leathery extrait with “enigmatic musks” that lasts all day but somehow doesn’t get too heavy. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Hey OH,
We don’t do Thanksgiving here but we did spend a fabulous Thanksgiving week in NYC in 2014. It was wonderful on so many levels.
Even though my business collapsed this year, I’ve been fairly lucky. There has been excellent government help, Jin has continued working, our friends have so far been safe and well and we have enough. Australia has been extremely lucky.
Above all this thanks go out for Jin, friends, our dogs, home, lifestyle and for perfume and the community that comes with it. Also the wonderful food we get to eat every day, so much variety and relatively affordable.
Portia xx
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I’m glad you got to see Thanksgiving in NYC at least once — did you see the parade?? Realy New Yorkers go the night before to watch the big balloons getting organized, it’s really fun and much less crowded. I’m sorry your business fell apart. My daughter was working in theater and event management, and lost both jobs, of course, so moved home with to save money until she can get back on her feet. It has been a tough year all ’round.
I also feel as if Australia has managed the pandemic so much better than the US — but then, so have most countries. It’s so disheartening but I hope change is on the way.
Hurray for Jin and the dogs, friends, community!
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Yes, we did see some of the parade. It was just too overwhelming to stay for very long, we also did some Black Friday shopping (also terrifying).
Sorry to read about your daughter. All the arts and entertainment have been ghard hit. Most will not recover, so sad.
They are saying that Taiwan was by far the best responder to C19. We did OK, with a few minor idiots who broke the rules and hundreds paid the price. Poor USA, you all seem to have had a completely awful time for 2020. Interesting that 2020 adds up to 4, the most challenging number in Chinese numerology.
Portia xx
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Lovely post. I’m so glad your daughter is recovering well. We are having an early Thanksgiving celebration this weekend with my son and daughter-in-law. I’ve enjoyed cooking and had fun making a hummingbird cake with my DIL. She had not made a cake from scratch before and it was great to have help. I had not done any cake baking in a while and boy it makes a mess, so many bowls dirty with all the various steps. My son is a physician and my DIL a pharmacist so they have been very careful in their clinics, wearing masks and face shields, seeing only immediate family outside of work. It’s been very uplifting and fun to see them. No one will be traveling for Christmas so we’re enjoying our together time now. It’s even been warm enough for an icy dip in the pool!
I’m very grateful that no one in immediate family has been sick with Covid 19. Hubby’s brother and SIL got it and sister-in-law is still feeling poorly after almost a month with COVID. I think she will eventually recover fully but it’s been very slow going.
I”m grateful for enough funds for everything I really need, affordable organic food, for friends and family, especially grateful to have escaped any hurricanes this year (at least I think we have!) I’m also grateful for my new tooth implants (what an ordeal!) and grateful I was able to pay for them with my dental insurance. And of course I’m grateful for perfume and for all the lovely retailers and decanters who sell samples! Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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What a lovely list of things for which you are thankful! I hope you had a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving. A hummingbird cake? Please share a recipe here when you are able! It sounds divine! Yes, having enough funds and insurance for real needs is something for which I give thanks often. So many people do not. And perfume! Such a welcome relief/release from daily cares. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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I think my post may have ended up in spam. I wrote too much, as usual. LOL
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Found it! I’m going to try to figure out how to adjust settings so that doesn’t keep happening to you!
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Something has happened with my ability to stay logged in to my WP account on mobile, so it got much harder to comment both on my own blog and on others’ 😦 I hope I’ll figure it out because it was very convenient to be able to communicate from my phone “on the go.”
I remember your WWW series. Actually, it was one of the things that attracted me on your blog. I even planned to copy it since I find it a very useful technique, but then somehow it didn’t happen.
I have many things to be grateful for this year. I had a health issue that started a year ago, but got better without requiring a surgery, at least for now. And my chronic back pains got much less frequent – it looks like my back appreciates WFH 🙂
Our Thanksgiving will be celebrated with our “extended bubble” – a friend’s family and his parents. We all isolate in day-to-day life, but we keep seeing each other every week – so this holiday won’t be different from other weeks.
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That sounds lovely, Undina! Maybe I’ll do a “special edition” WWW for Thursday. A Happy Thanksgiving to all.
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