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, December 18, and it is exactly one week before Christmas Day, as well as the last day of Hanukkah. What fragrant gifts do you expect to give, or hope to get? I have a few ideas: for instance, IKEA still has in stock its line of scented candles from its collaboration with Byredo’s Ben Gorham. I bought some when they were first in stores, and they’re very appealing: nice scents in pretty ceramic jars with matching lids. Everyone in my family likes scented candles, so they’ll get some of those. Zara has finally brought its “Zara Emotions” line to the US, the fragrances created by Jo Malone of Jo Loves, that launched last year in Europe. I’ve bought the discovery set, I’ll be interested to try them. There are several gift options on the website, including sets with candles in matching scents.
I’m planning to assemble a box of unused or underused fragrances from my collection for my kids to rummage through and choose what they like. I don’t have many options to put in there for my son, but he likes Cool Water, so I’ll give him that, and I’m going to see if he likes Gucci’s Memoire d’Une Odeur. I have plenty of options to offer my daughters! I’ve bought a few things for my husband to “give” me, lol, mostly from independent artisan perfumers like Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, and Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays.
I sent my two sisters in New England sets of Stash’s “Christmas in Paris” tea, with china mugs decorated with scenes of Paris. The tea is supposed to combine flavors of chocolate, lavender and mint! It sounds lovely and I may have to get some for my own family to try. I’m also looking forward to starting some real holiday cooking, which always makes the house smell wonderful.
What are you planning?
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
We don’t do holiday gifts, a d just plan a nice dinner. And my boyfriend doesn’t like scented things anyway. Otherwise I would gift him a nice Cologne.
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What’s on the menu for your holiday dinner? I usually make a red wine and lamb stew called stifado, it’s originally Greek and it has lots of yummy spices. It scents the whole house!
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We are undecided yet, but maybe a fish terrine for starters and ossobuco with risotto milanese for main. I saw a bread pudding from panettone at Jamie Oliver’s site, so maybe that.
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Those sound wonderful!
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It’s good to know my other half and I aren’t the only ones who pick our own gifts “from” each other! At first I thought it was less fun without the element of surprise, but in the long run it works out better to get exactly what you want. So he is “getting” me a bottle of Diptyque L’Ombre dans L’Eau and I’m “getting” him bike parts. Lol. As for other gifts, this year they’re mostly for the children in the extended family, and none of them happened to be scented.
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I think it’s a sign of a long, happy relationship! I still like to get him a few small surprises, for my own enjoyment at his reaction, but for big gifts we consult with each other.
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This year Jin is working Xmas Eve so I’ve got a few friends coming around and will order in a Chinese meal. VERY low fuss.
Jin will sleep for a few hours when he gets home then will spend lunchtime eating Chinese reheats. He’ll go off to sleep again and I’ll pop upstairs for a short while to have a drink with the crew in the apartment above.
I’ve been told exactly what to buy him this year and am profoundly grateful. Yes, I added a few little things for my own joy of shopping and gifting.
Boxing Day Jin has promised Roast Pork and Crackling. YAY! I’ll do mountains of veg and we’ll be eating it for the next couple of days.
Exactly the Xmas season I hoped for.
Enjoy whatever holiday you’re celebrating gang,
Anyone sad or unwontedly solo, here’s a virtual hug.
Portia xx
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It’s a bummer Jin has to work on Christmas, but I realize that someone has to. So, it’s great that you have something planned both for yourself not to feel bad during the holiday and for both of you.
I hope to “see” you before than, but just in case – Happy Christmas to you, Jin, your furry family members and all your friends.
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Hi Undina,
Naah, this will be lovely and Jin chose to take the shifts off a family man. He feels really good about having done it, the real Xmas spirit if ever I saw it. Sometimes I’m so proud to be his partner I think my heart will burst.
This way I can happily host a bunch of my mates. He would have HATED sharing Xmas eve, well maybe not hated but definitely not love it.
Yeah, we will definitely chat somewhere before but if not. Merry everything to you, Rusty and you’re dude.
Portia xx
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My husband and I buy our own presents also! Everyone in my family knows NOT to buy me perfume, but to let me choose my own gift. We had our big holiday meal in November when my son and DIL came down for a few days November 19. I’m in the midst of a very unpleasant stomach upset now so we likely won’t do any special food at all. If I start feeling better I’m going to make hubby some homemade cinnamon rolls with the yeast and everything. He loves those more than anything.
My daughter in law and I did a lot of perfume sampling when she was here and she fell for La Nuit Etoilee’ also. I found a bottle at a good price and sent it to her and I sent my son some scents and face and beard products from Scotch Porter, a fairly new men’s grooming company. Check out their website. I was impressed with them and the fragrances are quite nice. There was a Sniffapalooza event with them so that’s how I learned about this brand. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!
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Usually my vSO and I buy each other New Year gifts (we do celebrate Christmas but rather as a social event: our main celebration is NY). But this year we were so overwhelmed by work, that we decided to make ourselves a gift of not spending time and efforts on trying to figure out what to give each other. Instead, we got several things for ourselves and for our home. And, what is even more valuable, we got 2 weeks off work to rest and try to get the most from these holidays.
Meanwhile, I did buy myself perfume gift – Dusita’s Splenderis. I don’t think it’ll arrive before the next year, but it’s OK, I’ll enjoy holidays after they are over.
I tried buying candles at Ikea. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the store (a week (!) after they started selling them), there were just 2 different ones left – Fig & Cypress and Tobacco & Honey. I bought a large Fig candle for myself and my friend and a couple of small ones to give as a gift. I would have bought a small or even a medium tobacco candle, but they had just a large, and I didn’t like it enough to go for that size. It’s a pity they didn’t have anything else, because a couple of samples I smelled (to prevent people from buying those they removed wicks!) I liked. I really wanted Lilac & Amber. Oh, well…
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Enjoy your holiday Undina. You’ve definitely earned it.
Portia xx
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I think your gifts to each other sound perfect. The time off is priceless, isn’t it? My vacation from work began on Friday evening, and I’m cherishing some time to focus on my family and my house renovations.
Splendiris is lovely; I tried it at Les Senteurs the year it came out and it’s just so beautiful! It makes me happy to know you will have it. I’ve been burning the Fig & Cypress candle in our house, I really like it. I like Tobacco & Honey too, but like you, I shied away from the large size; I was able to get it in medium and will probably give it to one of my daughters (although my son might like it, he’s been enjoying the scented candles around the house).
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